The pact requires the two sides to withdraw to their positions before the conflict [AFP]

A spokesman for the Kremlin said that the final details of the French-drafted pact, which had already been agreed by Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, would be announced later on Saturday.

"The president informed participants of the security council meeting that he had just now signed the six-point plan," Natalia Timakova, the Kremlin's chief spokeswoman, said.

But there were few signs that Russian troops were preparing to leave Georgian territory, more than one week after rolling in to support separatists in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The deal requires Russian forces to withdraw to positions held before the conflict but troops were still outside the strategically important town of Gori, 60km northwest of the capital Tbilisi.

Two tanks and four armoured personnel carriers remained at Igoeti on the main road from South Ossetia to Tbilisi, just 30km away.

Andrei Nesterenko, Russian foreign ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Russian forces were carrying out an operation "focused on neutralising the danger which is coming from the huge depots of ammunition and military equipment which have been left by the Georgian army."

Withdrawal halted

Shota Utiashvili, Georgia's interior ministry spokesman, said that troops had had destroyed a railway bridge in Kaspi, "paralysing the Georgian railway network".

However, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said: "We are now in peacetime. Why should we be blowing up bridges when our job is to restore?

"This therefore can only be yet another completely unverified statement. We are not conducting bombardments. I can say with full responsibility that this cannot be the case."

Television showed one end of the bridge collapsed against the river bank. Villagers told the Reuters news agency that explosives were detonated remotely by men in military uniforms.

Russia had said it would only sign the ceasefire pact if it saw the Georgian president's signature on the document. Russia's foreign ministry was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that demand was met on Saturday.

Saakashvili, right, held five hours of talks with Rice [AFP]

Tbilisi talks

Saakashvili signed the pact following five hours of talks with Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, on Friday.

Next week Rice will travel to Brussels where she will meet Nato foreign ministers and EU officials in an effort to shore up support for Georgia.

"The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighbouring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people," George Bush, US president, said in his weekly radio address, which was recorded before the deal was signed.

"This act is completely unacceptable to the free nations of the world."

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had earlier secured the agreement of Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, to the EU-brokered deal but was told Moscow would guarantee the will of the people in the pro-Russian separatist regions.

Russian troops entered Georgia following Tbsili's August 7 offensive to retake South Ossetia, which achieved de  facto independence from Georgia in the 1990s during the breakup of  the Soviet Union.

Moscow, which firmly backs South Ossetia and Abkhazia, has issued Russian passports to most people in the two territories.

Recommend this article...

Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto: