Germany, Italy and several other European states today called for an inquiry into who was to blame for last month's South Ossetia conflict.
Separately, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said it would be wrong to punish Moscow by blocking its bid to join the World Trade Organization, saying the West should look at ties with Russia from a long-term perspective.
"The question of who participated, and with what motives, in the escalation to armed conflict is important as we consider future ties with the conflict parties - and I mean both Georgia and Russia," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before an EU meeting in Avignon, France.
He said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitors on the ground in Georgia, had information about the run-up to a conflict.
Italy's Franco Frattini added his backing to such an inquiry and said he had positive signals on it from Moscow and Tbilisi.
"I spoke about this idea with both the Russian Federation and Georgia. Both told me they are not against. There are good possibilities to launch it," he said.
Austria and Luxembourg also explicitly supported the idea, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain had always called for verification of allegations of human rights abuses.
The European Union and the United States have so far held back from tough sanctions against Russia after it sent troops and tanks to crush Georgia's bid to recapture the rebel region, while condemning Moscow's reaction as disproportionate.
The West has pledged support for the territorial integrity of former Soviet Georgia, but European and some US officials have expressed dismay over President Mikheil Saakashvili's attempt to solve the long-frozen conflict with military force.
Georgia's leaders say they sent their forces into South Ossetia - a region recognised by nearly all foreign countries as Georgian territory - in response to what they called repeated armed provocations by Russia and its separatist allies.
France brokered a deal to end the war last month, but Moscow has kept troops in "security zones" on Georgian territory beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region.
EU leaders warned the Kremlin this week that the bloc would postpone talks due this month on a new EU-Russia partnership pact, but avoided tougher sanctions amid internal divisions on how to deal with Europe's largest energy supplier.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Moscow on Monday to discuss with President Dmitry Medvedev whether Russia is ready to stick to the French-brokered peace plan which the West says does not allow for buffer zones.
Reuters