South Ossetia has not imposed additional travel restrictions for local ethnic Georgians, a government official told RIA Novosti.

Georgia's Interior Ministry claimed on Sunday that some travel restrictions for residents of regions on the border between Georgia and South Ossetia, who have Georgian passports, had been introduced without any explanation by South Ossetia authorities.

"South Ossetian authorities have not taken any additional measures in regard to the existing travel regime on our border," Boris Chochiyev, a S. Ossetian envoy on post-conflict settlement told RIA Novosti in a phone interview.

He said that some of the local residents, who still do not have S. Ossetian passports could travel freely across the border in both directions.

"However, this routine is not going to last forever. Sooner or later, the residents of regions bordering with Georgia will have to receive S. Ossetian passports," Chochiyev said.

South Ossetia and Abkhazia split from Georgia in bloody post-Soviet conflicts.

Russia recognized both regions as independent states on August 26, two weeks after the end of a five-day military conflict which began when Georgian forces launched an attack on South Ossetia.

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)