Russia troops prepare to leave Georgia buffer zone

By Lasha Berulava

KHOBI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian soldiers began dismantling checkpoints in western Georgia on Wednesday in line with a French-brokered ceasefire deal, but disagreement broke out over the international force that will replace them.

Underlining the fragility of the ceasefire that ended last month's brief war between Russia and Georgia, a Georgian policeman was shot dead near a Russian checkpoint in another part of the ex-Soviet state.

Moscow's intervention in Georgia last month, in which its forces crushed an attempt by Tbilisi to retake its breakaway South Ossetia region, drew widespread international condemnation and prompted concern over the security of energy supplies.

Russia agreed on Monday to pull back its troops from undisputed Georgian territory, a presence Western governments said was illegal. It will, though, keep about 7,600 troops inside South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a second separatist region.

A Reuters television reporter saw soldiers removing concrete blocks and wooden posts in a Russian-declared buffer zone outside Abkhazia, in what appeared to be the first phase of a Russian pullback brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The mayor of nearby Poti, a Black Sea port which is pivotal to the Georgian economy, said armoured vehicles had been removed from two checkpoints. "They are actively dismantling the checkpoints," Mayor Vano Saginadze told Reuters.

EUROPEAN FORCE

Western governments have so far shied away from imposing sanctions on Moscow, in part because for many of them Russia is the principal energy supplier.