Russia pledges to pull out troops from Georgia within a month

Moscow, Sep 8 (UNI) French President Nicholas Sarkozy today said after talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow has pledged to pull out its troops from Georgia, excluding South Ossetia and Abkhazia within a month.

Medvedev said the pull out would happen once 200 EU monitors had been deployed in South Ossetia.

He also said under a new agreement, Russia has pledged to withdraw from observation posts located between the Georgian town of Poti and Senaki within a week.

Medvedev, however, said Russia's decision to recognise the two regions was "irreversible." ''We made this choice ourselves,'' he said, ''It is final and irreversible.'' He also pointed out the international talks on the regions' status would take place in Geneva on October 15.

UNI XC MIR AS2340