French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today that Russia has agreed to leave core Georgia within a month.
Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, who met Mr Sarkozy today, said the withdrawal would happen once EU monitors had been deployed in South Ossetia
Mr Sarkozy made his comments following his meeting with President Medvedev in Moscow this afternoon.
Mr Sarkozy also said Russia has agreed to remove checkpoints around Georgia's Poti port within a week after discussions between Mr Medvedev and an EU delegation at the Russian president's official residence outside Moscow.
"In one week, the checkpoint (is to be) dismantled. In one month, Russian military forces (are to be) outside Georgian territory, with the exception naturally of Ossetia and Abkhazia," said Mr Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy said that if Russia withdraws, there would be no reason for EU-Russia talks not to go ahead in October.
"If this document is implemented . . . there would be no reason for the meetings between Russia and Europe that were postponed from September, should not take place from the month of October," he said.
Russia drew Western condemnation when it fought a brief war with Georgia last month, sending tanks and troops into its neighbor's territory to defeat a Georgian attempt to retake its breakaway South Ossetia region by force.
Mr Sarkozy brokered a ceasefire deal that ended the conflict, but Western governments say Russia is in breach of that agreement because it has kept troops in buffer zones around South Ossetia and the second separatist region of Abkhazia.
"I fully share the point of view of president Medvedev that the starting point is the agreement," Mr Sarkozy said ahead of the talks with the Russian leader.
"It is precisely this agreement which should be carried out," said Mr Sarkozy, who was accompanied in Moscow by European Commission President Mr Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana.
"I have no doubt that if everyone acts responsibly we will find a solution" he said. "Like our Russian friends, we want to strongly defend our convictions."
Russia says its troops in the buffer zones - which include undisputed Georgian territory - are peacekeepers who are in compliance with the ceasefire deal.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations have had peace monitors in South Ossetia and Abkhazia since previous conflicts.
A Russian Foreign Minister spokesman said the EU's approach to the Georgian crisis was "balanced and pragmatic" and said Russia wanted to see an expanded OSCE mission on the ground around South Ossetia.
But the spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, opposed an idea put forward at the meeting of EU foreign ministers for the creation of a civilian EU monitoring mission.
"We believe that will lead to excessive fragmentation of international monitoring efforts which today are already being carried out by the UN and OSCE," Mr Nesterenko told a news briefing.
Reuters