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TBILISI: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heavily criticised Russia on Friday as she confirmed that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had signed a ceasefire deal with Russia.
The top US diplomat, in Georgia to back Saakashvili's pro-Western government, accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of not honouring his commitments under a ceasefire deal that was originally brokered by the French EU presidency earlier this week.
"With the signing of this accord, all Russian troops, and any paramilitary and irregular troops that entered with them must leave immediately," Rice said at a news conference after talks with Saakashvili.
"The verbal assurance that President Medvedev gave that Russian military operations had stopped... clearly was not honoured," Rice said.
Her comments came as Russian troops continued to hold positions deep inside Georgia, even outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia that was the spark of the current conflict.
Rice arrived earlier Friday in Tbilisi following talks in southern France with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
US officials had said that Rice was bringing Tbilisi "clarifications" on the six-point ceasefire agreement brokered earlier this week by France.
They said the clarifications referred to territorial integrity and a provision for Russia to patrol outside the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a limited period.
But in an indication of the fragility of the agreement, Saakashvili insisted that Georgia would never agree to surrender Abkhazia or South Ossetia, which are outside his government's control.
"Never, ever will Georgia reconcile itself with the occupation of even one square kilometre of its territory," Saakashvili said at the press conference alongside Rice outside his residency in Tbilisi.
"A significant part of Georgian territory remains under foreign military occupation," he added.
But he confirmed that he had signed the ceasefire.
Rice said that "neutral" international peacekeepers would be needed, contradicting Russia's stance that the local populations in South Ossetia and Abkhazia would only accept Russian troops.
"It is the position of the United States that that will require international peacekeeping forces that are neutral in the conflict," she said.
Before arriving in Tbilisi, Rice had told reporters that the United States "would never ask Georgia to sign on to something where its interests were not protected."
She said that in order for the formal ceasefire to be agreed, "there really did have to be important clarifications... in order to make sure that Georgian interests are protected."
Rice said that the main aim for Georgia should be to regain control of the areas outside Abkhazia and South Ossetia that in recent days have been controlled by Russian troops.
"I think it would be a major accomplishment for Georgia to get the Russians out of their country and back effectively to the status quo" that existed before the conflict erupted one week ago.
"I think that would be a major accomplishment," she said.
Medvedev said on Friday he saw little chance of the two rebel regions reintegrating with Georgia, but Rice strongly backed the territorial integrity of Georgia.
She said the United States and European Union had agreed to "recognise the territorial integrity of Georgia and recognise that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are within the internationally recognized boundaries of Georgia." - AFP/de
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