Medvedev signs ceasefire pact on Russia-Georgia conflict

Moscow, Aug 16 (UNI) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today signed the French-brokered ceasefire agreement on resolving conflicts in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

''The Georgian-South Ossetian conflict issue was considered during a meeting of the Russian Security Council, and the President informed those attending that he had just signed the plan based on six principles,'' Presidential Press Secretary Natalya Timakova said.

The plan contains the main principles to resolve the conflict in South Ossetia, which was agreed on at the talks between Mr Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on August 12 in Moscow.

The six-point peace plan includes renouncing the use of force, halting all military action, providing free access to humanitarian aid, the return of Georgian Armed Forces to their bases, the return of Russia's Armed Forces to their positions prior to fighting and the start of international discussions on the future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and on ways to ensure their security.

The plan was signed by Mr Saakashvili yesterday in Tbilisi after his talks with the visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and earlier by the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, which have been seeking secession from Georgia since the 1990s.

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