Sarkozy flies to Russia to seek new Georgia deal

French President Nicolas Sarkozy flies to Moscow on Monday seeking to thrash out a lasting peace deal for Georgia that will persuade Russia to pull its troops out of positions deep inside the ex-Soviet state.

Russia drew Western condemnation when it fought a brief war with Georgia last month, sending tanks and troops deep into its neighbour's territory to defeat a Georgian attempt to retake its breakaway South Ossetia region by force.

Tensions between Russia and the United States over Georgia flared again at the weekend, with the Kremlin attacking the presence of NATO warships in the Black Sea and U.S. foe Venezuela saying it planned joint naval exercises with Russia later this year in the Caribbean Sea.

Sarkozy was to arrive in Moscow four weeks after he brokered a ceasefire that ended the brief war over South Ossetia, the first time Russian forces were involved in combat outside their borders since the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan.

But a dispute remains over the presence of Russian troops in buffer zones around South Ossetia and the second separatist region of Abkhazia. The Kremlin says they are legitimate peacekeepers, while the West calls them occupiers.

The European Union has warned it will suspend talks on a new partnership pact unless Moscow pulls back its forces. But the 27-member bloc has limited scope for influencing the Kremlin because it depends on Russia for its energy supplies.

"The aim is clear: as big a deployment as possible so the Russians can leave as quickly as possible," one French official told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in southern France at the weekend.

CASTLE TALKS

Russia said it was morally obliged to attack Georgia to prevent what it called a genocide in South Ossetia by Georgian troops, and says it is in full compliance with the ceasefire.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last month defied the West by recognising South Ossetia and the second breakaway region of Abkhazia as independent states.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, will be accompanied by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

They will all meet Medvedev at Meiendorf Castle, a state residence outside Moscow.

The two sides are expected to discuss the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Georgia. Moscow has said it will withdraw from the buffer zones once an effective international security structure is in place.

There were conflicting signals over the weekend about whether Russia was ready to comply with the EU's demands.

In a sign of increased Russian cooperation, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Saturday its team of around 20 observers was now able to circulate freely throughout Georgia.

But Georgia's government said on Sunday Russian forces were re-inforcing their positions in one buffer zone, near the strategic Black Sea port of Poti. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the report.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper, citing separatist sources, said Moscow will formally establish diplomatic relations with South Ossetia and the second breakaway region of Abkhazia on Tuesday -- a step likely to anger the West.