Russia pulls back troops

Russia pulled back its troops yesterday from buffer zones it set up on Georgian territory during a summer war, but Georgia demanded it take further steps before a deadline of tomorrow.

The Russian Defence Ministry said troops had removed all six of their checkpoints in the buffer zone around Georgia's rebel province of South Ossetia, ahead of the Friday deadline stipulated by a French-brokered ceasefire deal.

Troops were also seen pulling back from a zone adjacent to a second breakaway region, Abkhazia.

"Russia seems to have completed most of the withdrawal," said Hansjoerg Haber, head of an EU monitoring mission, adding that his team was still verifying the situation on the ground.

A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said the pullback from the buffer zones was complete.

But Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Russian troops still had to quit two disputed enclaves within South Ossetia and Abkhazia by October 10. Tbilisi says the Georgian-populated enclaves - Akhalgori and the Kodori gorge - have for years not been part of the rebel regions.

The dispute underlined the potential for renewed conflict, as more than 200 EU observers patrol the zones to monitor the fragile ceasefire.

"By October 10... Russian forces have to withdraw definitely from the territories which never used to be part of the conflict regions of South Ossetia or Abkhazia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union," Mr Tkeshelashvili told a teleconference.

Russia plans to keep 7,600 troops in the rebel regions, which it recognised as independent states after the war that began on August 7 and ran for five days.

Russia sent tanks and troops to repel a Georgian military assault to retake South Ossetia. Its heavy counter-offensive drew condemnation from the West, and deepened fears over the security of the Caucasus as a transit route for oil and gas from the Caspian Sea to western Europe, bypassing Russia.

"All Russian forces that are here now in Georgia... that entered the territory of my country from August 7 onwards, they have to be withdrawn," Mr Tkeshelashvili said.

A Reuters reporter followed a convoy of about 20 military trucks and armoured vehicles out of the main Karaleti checkpoint and saw it cross the de facto border with breakaway South Ossetia, 20 kilometres further north.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the pullback would be completed by midnight. He praised the role of the EU in ending the crisis in a speech heavily critical of Georgia's main backer, the United States.