Tbilisi, Saturday (AFP) - Western capitals accused Moscow of failing to respect a peace deal in Georgia as Russia retained control today over the country's main highway despite a partial withdrawal of troops.
Britain, France and the United States urged further withdrawals, saying that Friday's pull-out of tanks, artillery and hundreds of troops from areas deep inside Georgia was insufficient.
Late Friday, Georgian police finally recovered control over Gori, a large town near South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed separatist region at the centre of the Georgian-Russian conflict.
The police went in soon after the last Russian troops rolled out in huge columns of armour, some moving into South Ossetia and others into Abkhazia, a second Russian-controlled separatist zone of Georgia.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Russia had now “fulfilled its obligations” under a French-brokered ceasefire plan aimed at ending the two-week old conflict.
Moscow retains full control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia and says it also has the right to establish an “area of responsibility” far beyond.
This includes fortifications near the main commercial port of Poti, in Senaki and around South Ossetia.
Moscow also claims the right to patrol a sweeping area taking in stretches of the main east-west highway and trade artery that links the capital Tbilisi to Poti.
“It is not true that the withdrawal is complete,” Georgia's interior ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said.
The ex-Soviet republic's Western backers told Moscow overnight that it was violating the peace accord.
US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed during a telephone conversation that “Russia is not in compliance and that Russia needs to come into compliance now,” a White House spokesman said.
Bush and Sarkozy called on Russia to “continue and complete” its withdrawal from Georgia, a statement from the French presidency added.
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