WORLD NEWS
SARKOZY CALLS FOR RUSSIA WITHDRAWAL
Georgia appealing for halt to what it claims is years of ethnic cleansing by Russia
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has pressed Russia to honour its pledge to withdraw troops from Georgia and warned the Kremlin that the European Union is united on this position.
During the talks with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Mr Sarkozy's EU delegation was also pushing for a quick deployment of several hundred EU monitors to Georgia. But just after Sarkozy arrived, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said Moscow is against an independent EU monitoring mission in Georgia.
Speaking at the start of his talks with Mr Medvedev, Mr Sarkozy warned the Russian leader that the EU nations are "united" in their stance.
"They want peace, they want confidence, they want good neighbourly relations," said Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency. "And in the same way as our Russian friends, they want to defend our convictions. The European Union also has its principles and convictions."
Nearly a month after a truce negotiated by Mr Sarkozy ended a five-day war between Russia and Georgia, Russian troops remain entrenched deep inside Georgian territory. Georgia and the West have accused Russia of failing to honour its pledge to withdraw its troops to positions held before the fighting broke out August 7.
But Russia says those troops are peacekeepers and that they are allowed under the accord to help maintain security around Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Moscow has recognised the two regions as independent states.
Mr Sarkozy has been criticised for giving the Russians too much room for interpretation in the peace deal signed August 12, and his diplomatic blitz to Moscow and Tbilisi may be his last chance to save it -- and save his own credibility as a peacemaker.
Other members of the EU delegation are European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
EU officials said quick deployment of several hundred EU monitors to Georgia would remove any justification for the continued presence of Russian troops outside the two provinces. But their mandate is yet to be negotiated.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said just before the EU delegation sat down for talks with Mr Medvedev that Moscow was against an autonomous EU monitoring mission in Georgia.
