CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Saturday warily welcomed Russia's signing of a deal to end its conflict with Georgia as "a hopeful step," but warned Moscow must now withdraw its forces.
Bush, speaking at his Texas ranch after hour-long talks on the crisis with his top national security aides, also sternly warned Russia that the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would remain part of Georgia.
"There's no room for debate on this matter," he said with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his side. "These regions are a part of Georgia, and the international community has repeatedly made clear that they will remain so."
Bush welcomed as "a hopeful step" news that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had signed a French-brokered ceasefire deal already backed by Georgia, but pressed Moscow to make good on its pledges.
"Now Russia needs to honor the agreement and withdraw its forces, and of course end military operations," said Bush, who discussed the crisis with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers.
Neither Bush nor Rice made mention of any specific, concrete reprisals for what they have repeatedly denounced as Russia's disproportionate response to Georgia military operations in South Ossetia nearly two weeks ago.
"We'll take our time and look at further consequences for what Russia has done," Rice said, adding that she would ask NATO at a foreign ministers meeting next week for a strong statement of support for Georgia.
Asked why Russia should care in the absence of specific reprisals, Rice said: "I think, actually, Russia will care about this talk because it's not just talk, it's about Russia's standing in the international community."
Despite the signing of the ceasefire deal, Russian troops dug in close to the Georgian capital Saturday, showing no sign of preparing to withdraw to where they were before the latest flare-up began on August 6.
And the timing of the pull-out appeared to in question, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying in Moscow that Russian troops in Georgia would have no timetable for withdrawing.
Asked by journalists how long a pullout from Georgia would take, Lavrov replied: "As long as needed," and added it would depend on Russian units being able to implement unspecified "additional security measures."
Rice told reporters "it's a very limited mandate," adding that only Russian forces deployed in South Ossetia before August 6 would have a role, and only then until the arrival of international monitors.
Under the deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Russians are "to have limited patrols in a prescribed area within the zone of conflict -- not to go into Georgian urban areas, not to tie up the highway," she said.
"Now that President Medvedev has reportedly signed the ceasefire agreement, I assume that Russian forces are going to begin to withdraw expeditiously," she told reporters.
"President Sarkozy told me that President Medvedev had told him that the 'minute' (Georgian President Mikheil) Saakashvili signed that document, Russian forces would begin to withdraw," she said.
"So from my point of view, and I'm in contact with the French, the Russians are perhaps already not honoring their word," said Rice, who arrived in Texas hours earlier after traveling to France and Georgia to discuss the standoff.
Bush and Rice earlier discussed the crisis by secure videoconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Bush, who last week tasked the US military with delivering humanitarian aid to Georgia, said military flights had brought critical supplies last week and "more will be arriving in the days ahead."
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