Russian troops withdraw from Georgian port

Russian troops withdrew from Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti today, within a deadline set for the first phase of a pullback brokered by France.

A Reuters reporter saw troops in armoured personnel carriers and trucks pull out from positions on the outskirts of Poti. Russian forces hold other positions on the way to the nearby town of Senaki but were seen on Friday preparing to leave.

Russia sent forces deep into Georgia last month after repelling an attempt by Tbilisi to retake the breakaway, pro-Russian South Ossetia region.

On Monday, Moscow agreed to withdraw its troops from Georgia's heartland within a month but there was no commitment to scale back its military presence in South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, mediating on behalf of the European Union, secured the pullback from undisputed Georgian territory during talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Moscow's intervention in Georgia, home to pipelines carrying oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to world markets that are favoured by the West because they bypass Russia, drew widespread international condemnation.

Russia has said it would station about 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both of which the Kremlin recognised last month as independent states.

Medvedev said the withdrawal agreement was made possible after the EU offered guarantees that pro-Western Georgia would refrain from any use of force against its separatist regions.

The deal depended on the deployment of an international monitoring force, including a 200-strong EU unit, according to a text of the agreement released by the Kremlin.

Russia said it was morally obliged to send in its forces last month to prevent what it called a genocide in the separatist regions by a Georgian government egged on by its ally, the United States.