THE US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday persuaded Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili to sign a six-point peace agreement as demanded by Russia.
Echoing earlier remarks by US president George Bush, Dr Rice said Russian troops in Georgia, believed to number in the thousands, must now leave.
"Our most urgent task today is the orderly and immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia," she said, adding that it was "the understanding I had with [French] President Sarkozy yesterday" that "when President Saakashvili signed this ceasefire accord there would be an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgian territory . . . This must take place and take place now."
Mr Saakashvili was grim-faced and emotional at a joint press conference with Ms Rice. "I want the world to know: never, ever, will Georgia reconcile with occupation or give up one square kilometre of its sovereign territory," he said.
"There is a strong force led by former KGB warriors. Old tanks taken out of Afghanistan or eastern Europe are now rolling back again into other countries. Georgia was the first one to take their heat . . . They are euphoric. They are arrogant. They will not stop."
Earlier in the day, Mr Bush promised he would not "cast aside" his Georgian allies and said that [Russian] "bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century".
Mr Sarkozy, who negotiated the agreement in a marathon midweek trip to Moscow and Tbilisi, issued a statement saying he considered "the conditions are now in place for the rapid adoption of a resolution by the [UN] Security Council and the definition of an international mechanism which will be charged with overseeing the implementation of the agreement on the ground".
The crucial question is whether the Russians will leave Gori, the central Georgian town they moved into on Wednesday. Residents of the town yesterday began receiving Russian signals on their mobile telephones and televisions.
Gori straddles Georgia's east-west highway, and the Russian presence there effectively cuts the capital Tbilisi off from the Black Sea coast.
The Russians have used point five of the accord, which the French leader accepted at their insistence and conveyed to Mr Saakashvili, to justify their occupation of Gori. It allows the Russians to deploy troops in a "peacekeeping role" outside the boundaries of the separatist enclaves.