MOSCOW (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy sought Monday to ramp up pressure on Russia to withdraw more troops from Georgia in a trip to Moscow and Tbilisi exactly a month after the neighbours went to war.
On arrival Sarkozy headed straight to meet Dmitry Medvedev at his residence near Moscow for talks centring on the need to honour last month's ceasefire agreement between Georgia and Russia.
He is accompanied on his trip by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The three will travel to Tbilisi for afternoon talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, with whom Russia has refused direct contact since the conflict erupted on August 8.
France holds the rotating presidency of the European Union and it was Sarkozy who brokered the August 12 accord that officially brought an end to the brief war over the Moscow-backed separatist province of South Ossetia.
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has come under fire for not honouring the terms of the truce, in particular from the United States, which is not as reliant as some European nations on Russian oil and gas supplies.
Moscow argues that its remaining presence in Georgia -- thought to be a few thousand troops -- is in line with the peace agreement which foresaw "additional security measures" by Russia in the conflict zone.
Georgia, whose army was routed by the Russians after launching an ill-fated campaign to regain control of South Ossetia, views the leftover troops as an occupying force.
"I am hopeful that the French president's visit to Moscow... will clarify the six-point (peace) plan," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday.
"We, as the European Union, want to continue contacts (with Moscow).... At the same time it's not possible that a six-point plan that we have developed together is not respected," she said.
French officials say they will press for: the deployment of an EU observer mission in Georgia; a timetable for Russia's withdrawal; and international talks on the future of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.
Russia says it will only pull its troops out of areas surrounding the rebel regions once international controls, including observers and police, are in place to prevent another Georgian attack.
It also wants Georgia to sign a non-aggression pact and insists that Georgian troops have not yet returned to their own bases, one of the six terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Western countries have said Russia is in breach of the accord, urging Moscow to pull out immediately, and have strongly condemned Medvedev's move on August 26 to unilaterally recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The conflict has plunged relations between Russia and the West to a tense post-Cold War low, with an angry war of words developing between Russia and the United States.
On a tour of American allies in the region last week, US Vice-President Dick Cheney accused Russia of using "brutality" and trying to redraw the map of Georgia.
Russia has countered by accusing the US of involvement in Georgia's attack on South Ossetia and says Washington has been re-arming the Georgian military since the conflict.
Russia's military surged into Georgia on August 8 with Moscow arguing they were protecting tens of thousands of residents granted Russian citizenship since the 1991 collapse of the USSR.
Hundreds of people on both sides are estimated to have been killed in the conflict, which wrought extensive destruction on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Tens of thousands have also been forced to flee their homes.
Georgia accused Russia before the UN's highest court in The Hague on Monday of conducting a long-running campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Georgian territory.
"Ethnic Georgians have been targeted and forcibly expelled from these regions... and denied the right to return for more than a decade," counsel James Crawford argued before the International Court of Justice.
"There has been burning of houses, murder of civilians, looting of property," he said.
Russia has not responded publicly to the Georgian application but has instead accused Georgia of committing a "genocide" with its assault on Tskhinvali.
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