MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia has lost the right to conduct peacekeeping operations in its breakaway republic of South Ossetia, a senior Russian military official said on Thursday.

"Only Russian Armed Forces have the right to perform a peacekeeping mission in this area of responsibility," said Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's general staff.

He said the Russian peacekeeping contingent was also continuing to function in its responsibility zone in another Georgian separatist republic, Abkhazia, and said additional peacekeeping observer posts would be set up there in the near future.

"In order to ensure security for civilians, additional peacekeeping observer posts are to be set up in the near future," the official said.

Nogovitsyn said on Wednesday that Moscow would insist on giving its peacekeepers the right to carry out reconnaissance missions and on creating no-fly zones for Georgian aircraft.

He warned on Thursday that any planes flying over South Ossetia and nearby Georgian regions could only "conduct flights only with Russia's permission."

He also said foreign observers must coordinate trips to the conflict zone with the Russian Defense Ministry.