Preliminary results showed that most of the voters in Georgia's region of South Ossetia backed independence for the region in a referendum on Sunday, the Inter fax news agency quoted the local election chief as saying on Monday.

The region previously held referenda on independence in 1992 and 2001, but their results were not recognized by the international community.

"We obtained data from 64 out of 78 polling stations as of 10:00 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT), with 99 percent of the ballots counted, cast in favor of South Ossetian independence," Bela Pliyeva, head of South Ossetia's election commission, was quoted as saying.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and another breakaway region Abkhazia back under Tbilisi's control.

In a statement on Saturday, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said the presidential election and the referendum in South Ossetia were unlawful.

Meanwhile, the ministry said Tbilisi "will continue purposeful work to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict."
 
Editor: Yan