Sarkozy in Moscow to enforce Georgia ceasefire plan (1st Lead)

Sep 8, 2008, 11:52 GMT

Moscow - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow on Monday to urge his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to withdraw troops from Georgia and save the peace deal he brokered last month.

Sarkozy is attempting to force Moscow's full compliance with the accord that stopped the five-day war over South Ossetia, by threatening to suspend talks on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement.

The French president, who currently holds the EU rotating presidency, is backed by an EU ministers vote at an emergency session on September 1.

The EU has said that it will postpone the next round of talks towards a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which governs Russia's practical relationship with the EU trading bloc, unless a full withdrawal to August 6 positions has been made.

The talks are scheduled for September 15.

Sarkozy said on September 1 that 'the September 8 meeting is very important for our future relationship with Russia.'

But Moscow has shown no signs of softening its position. It refers to its troops still in Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti and in a 7- kilometre buffer zone around the breakaway states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as 'peacekeepers.'

Talks in Moscow are likely to be less about hard results than cooling tensions on Monday.

Sarkozy, flanked by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, was due to meet Medvedev at his residence outside Moscow at 1100 GMT.

In an exercise of shuttle diplomacy after Russia and Georgia swore off direct talks, the three are set to fly to Tbilisi for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the evening.

One concrete goal sought by EU negotiators will be for 200 European military observers to replace that same number of Russian 'peacekeepers' still in check points inside Georgia.

But a Russian Foreign Ministry official told journalists Monday that Moscow was against an independent EU monitoring mission in Georgia, insisting on the mission being led by the OSCE, where Russia has greater influence.

Andrei Nesterenko said the involvement of other international observers would lead to 'fragmentation,' setting an uncompromising note as talks got started on Monday.

Russia also demands that the Georgian side sign a non-aggression pact before returning to the other six points of last month's ceasefire agreement.

'Unfortunately, we have not heard the EU appeal to Tbilisi to sign an legally binding agreement on the non-use of force with Abkhazia and South Ossetia,' Nesterenko added at a press conference in Moscow.

Moscow recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on August 26, leading to the current deadlock.