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The issue of border customs checkpoints remained unsettled in talks between Russia and Georgia on Moscow's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the two sides solved other problems, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said on Thursday.

Russian trade officials have had a number of meetings with the Georgian colleagues, which removed all Georgian demands on Russia but one, the ministry said.

"The functioning of checkpoints in (Georgia's breakaway regions of) Abkhazia and South Ossetia remains the unsettled question," the ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

The ministry said Russian and Georgian trade officials will meet again in late February.

Russia, the largest economy still outside the Geneva-based world trade body, has been negotiating for membership since 1993. It signed a key deal with the United States in November, clearing the last major hurdle to Moscow's longtime bid.

Georgia is the only country that Russia has yet to complete talks on its WTO accession. The Caucasus nation signed a deal with Russia in May 2004 but announced in July that it would renegotiate the terms with Moscow.