The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed Tuesday in Vienna to send 20 observers "immediately" to Georgia to oversee a ceasefire deal with Russia.
   
"Twenty MMOs (military monitoring officers) will be deployed immediately in the areas adjacent to South Ossetia," said the agreement, adopted by consensus by the OSCE's Permanent Council.
   
The first unarmed monitors were to arrive in Georgia later this week, with all 20 possibly in place within a week.
   
"It shows that all participating states wanted to use this organisation for the monitoring activities that are so badly needed and to have trust in its capabilities of doing so," the representative of the OSCE's Finnish chairmanship, Aleksi Harkonen, told journalists after the meeting.
   
The monitors' task would be to oversee a ceasefire between Moscow and Tbilisi that Georgia says is not being respected by Russia.
   
In total, the OSCE said it would send up to 100 monitors to Georgia for a minimum period of six months, in addition to the handful it already has in the country.
   
But it noted that the rest of the contingent "will be deployed subject to a new decision of the Permanent Council on the modalities of the MMOs, to be proposed by the Chairmanship without delay."
   
This decision could realistically be taken in the coming weeks, Harkonen noted, adding that he was hoping this new deal would allow for monitors to be deployed within South Ossetia itself.
   
The OSCE monitors on the ground, who are all currently in Tbilisi, are already allowed to operate in the breakaway region.
   
"It will do some good to the implementation of the ceasefire, we hope," Harkonen said of the 20 additional envoys.
   
Among other things, the monitors could be sent to the Georgian town of Gori to observe the withdrawal of Russian troops, which tentatively began Tuesday.
   
"The implementation of the ceasefire has been criticised by both sides. Now for the first time we will have a chance to get some independent assessment of what is really happening," Harkonen said.
   
At least 10 countries have already offered to send monitors to Georgia as part of the OSCE mission, for which a budget has not yet been decided.
   
In theory, all 56 members can contribute, but Harkonen said the organisation did not need to consult all member states before choosing whom to send, which could mean that Russian monitors will be kept out of the OSCE force.
   
Tuesday's decision came after long deliberations that began Monday in Vienna.
   
Georgia was the last member state to agree to the draft agreement, over concerns about where the OSCE observers would be deployed and whether they would require a new mandate.
   
The OSCE already said last Thursday that it was ready to send additional observers but had not decided on it formally.
   
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who met with NATO foreign ministers Tuesday in Brussels, said he would travel to Georgia on Thursday "to check out that everything is running at least fairly smoothly" and to ensure that the monitors have free access "to the areas in and near the conflict zones."
   
The first additional OSCE monitors were to travel to the region with him.