Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says his country's forces will pull out of most of Georgia by the weekend.
However, in a telephone call with his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, Medvedev said 500 soldiers would remain as peacekeepers. A Russian military official said Russian troops would maintain a buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. There is still no evidence of a large-scale Russian withdrawal from Georgia. A spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the situation "very unsatisfactory". Earlier, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations rejected a draft Security Council resolution demanding an immediate pullout, saying it didn't reflect the principles of a French brokered ceasefire.
(Deutsche Medvedev meets with US and UK leaders at G8 summit ...
Medvedev worried by tension with West ... Welle)
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