Russia pledges to withdraw troops tomorrow

“Georgia will never give up a square kilometre of its territory,” Mr Saakashvili told a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mrs Merkel, who joined Mr Saakashvili in urging Russia to abide by a ceasefire deal and withdraw its troops, was the latest Western leader to visit Tbilisi and offer support for a country at the centre of deepening tensions between Russia and the US and Europe.

“I expect a very fast, very prompt withdrawal of Russian troops out of Georgia,” she said in a courtyard at Mr Saakashvili’s official residence. “This is an urgent matter.”

Mr Saakashvili alleged that Russian forces, far from withdrawing, had moved closer to the capital on Saturday and vowed to defend Tbilisi if necessary. He also accused Russia of ethnic cleansing and said Georgia would not accept a future presence of Russian peacekeepers.

Mr Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian forces would begin their withdrawal on Monday, moving toward South Ossetia and a security zone that roughly coincides with its borders, according to the Kremlin.

But he stopped short of promising they would return to Russia, suggesting that Russia could maintain a sizeable force in South Ossetia. That would likely fuel fears that Russia could seek to annex the region, which – like Abkhazia – broke from government control in the 1990s and has declared independence.

“No matter what happens, we will never reconcile with the fact of annexation or indeed separation of parts of territory from Georgia; with the attempt to legalise ethnic cleansing; and with the attempts to bring Georgia to its knees and undermine our democratic system,” Mr Saakashvili said.

The West agrees that Georgia must not be broken up divided, Mrs Merkel said.

“Georgia is a sovereign state and the territorial integrity of the state must be provided for,” she said.

She stressed German support for Georgia’s Nato aspirations, saying before the meeting that “Georgia will, if it wants – and it does want to – become a member of Nato.” At the news conference, however, she said she did not know when that would happen.

Nato offered Georgia assurance in April that it would eventually join Nato, but declined to offer it a blueprint for membership, in part because of fears in Germany and other European nations of angering Russia, a major energy supplier to the European Union.

Elsewhere in Georgia, it appeared very clear that Russian troops were staying put, building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries on a hill near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles west of Tbilisi.

West of Igoeti, Russian troops were deployed in large numbers in and around the strategic central city of Gori, but their presence was reduced Sunday.

Russian troops still effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia because they surround Gori as well as the city of Senaki and the Senaki air base. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges. Russia also confirmed Sunday that it had taken over a major power plant in western Georgia.

Georgia, bordering the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

The EU-backed cease-fire agreement calls for Georgian and Russian troops to withdraw to the positions they held before fighting broke out August 7.

“From my point of view – and I am in contact with the French – the Russians are perhaps already not honouring their word,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.

Ms Rice noted that the ceasefire, negotiated by Mr Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate for the soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers who were in Georgia when hostilities escalated. She said they can have limited patrols within the two separatist areas but are not allowed to go into Georgia.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said on Saturday that Russia would not withdraw troops until Moscow is satisfied that security measures allowed under the agreement are effective. He said Russia would strengthen its peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia.

Asked how much time it would take, Lavrov responded: “As much as is needed.”

US President George Bush warned yesterday that Russia cannot lay claim to the two separatist regions in US-backed Georgia – South Ossetia and Abkhazia – even though their sympathies lie with Moscow.

“There is no room for debate on this matter,” the president, with Ms Rice, told reporters at his Texas ranch.

On the ground, Bush’s words appeared to have little sway.

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry accused Russian army units and separatist fighters in Abkhazia of taking over 13 villages and the Inguri hydropower plant on Saturday, shifting the border of the Black Sea province toward the Inguri River. Russia confirmed Sunday that its peacekeepers were in control of the power plant.

The villages and plant are in a UN-established buffer zone on Abkhazia’s edge, and it appeared the separatists were bolstering their control over the zone after forcing Georgians out of their last stronghold in Abkhazia earlier this week.

The Russians also controlled the western Georgian city of Senaki as well as access to the Black Sea port city of Poti and the road north to Abkhazia. AP reporters have seen Russian troops there for days but noted a growing contingent Saturday and artillery guns and tanks pointed out from Senaki.

An Associated Press Television News team saw Russian soldiers pulling out of Poti on Saturday after sinking Georgian naval vessels and ransacking the port. A picture of Mr Saakashvili in the looted Coast Guard office had been vandalised.

A large anti-Russian banner hung today in front of the Parliament building in central Tbilisi: “No war, Russia go home.”