Russia to extend Georgia pullback today

Russia will pull back today from the southern edge of a buffer zone inside Georgia adjacent to South Ossetia, a senior Russian officer said, ahead of an October 10 deadline.

Russia has until Friday to withdraw its troops from security zones inside core Georgian territory - adjacent to South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia - under a ceasefire deal brokered by EU president France following a brief war with Georgia in August.

"Tomorrow in the first half of the day the pullout will occur of all six Russian peacekeeping checkpoints from the south of the security zone," Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in the region, told reporters in the South Ossetian town of Java yesterday.

"The pullback will be completed in one day," he said.

A second line of Russian troops is located further north, on the de facto South Ossetian border. It was not immediately clear whether the pullback would be matched in the Abkhaz buffer zone.

Russia plans to station more than 7,000 soldiers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it recognised as independent states after its August counter-offensive to repel a Georgian assault to retake South Ossetia from pro-Moscow separatists.

A EU mission monitoring the ceasefire would not be drawn on whether the pullout from the six checkpoints would mean Russia was in compliance with the ceasefire deal.

"We will have to verify for ourselves to make sure the deal has been met," said a spokesman for the mission. He said the pullback would be a "positive" development.