South Ossetian forces pulled out of a Georgian village on the border of the breakaway territory yesterday after EU officials monitoring a ceasefire expressed concern, a Georgian police official said.

Russian troops pulled back from a buffer zone around South Ossetia in October after fighting off a Georgian bid to retake the region in August. They kept one checkpoint in Perevi, but Georgia said allied South Ossetian 'militia' had moved into the settlement a week ago, alarming villagers.

A senior Georgian police official told Reuters the Ossetian forces left the village of around 1,000 people yesterday.

"All Ossetians who had been here have left, but Russians remained. There are 20-25 Russians at the checkpoint right now and they have put two tents there," he said. EU officials monitoring a ceasefire already tested by accusations of border attacks and kidnappings had said they were concerned about the situation in Perevi and called on all sides "to prevent provocations".

South Ossetia's leadership said its forces had entered only a part of the village that lay within its territory.

Russia intervened in ex-Soviet Georgia in early August to halt a Georgian military bid to retake pro-Russian South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in the early 1990s.

Under Western pressure, Russian forces pulled back to within South Ossetia and the second breakaway region of Abkhazia, but the Kremlin recognised both regions as independent states.