Russia promises to start Georgia pullback

By Oleg Shchedrov

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it would pull back some of its troops in Georgia within 24 hours after Washington demanded they leave "now", but Moscow said it would still keep a force stationed in Georgia's heartland.

In some of Washington's toughest comments to date, the White House declared Russia in violation of its commitments to leave the pro-Western Caucasus mountain state after routing Georgian forces in a war that erupted two weeks ago.

"The withdrawal is not happening very quickly, if it in fact has begun," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "The withdrawal needs to take place, and needs to take place now."

U.S. impatience has been growing by the day as it waits for a full-scale pullout of troops and weaponry that Russia sent into its small neighbour two weeks ago to counter a Georgian attack on the Moscow-backed South Ossetia region.

A Reuters reporter saw a column of T-72 main battle tanks lumbering across the border from Russia into Georgia -- the first sign of heavy armour being withdrawn from Georgian soil -- but elsewhere Russian forces remained in place.

Russian defence officials said what they called reinforcement troops would be pulled back to within South Ossetia by the end of Friday, and from there withdrawn to Russian soil within 10 days.

But they made a distinction between those troops and what they described as a peacekeeping force. This force will stay on indefinitely in South Ossetia, and a buffer zone around it, the officials said.

That would leave Russian troops still inside the Georgian heartland and close to the main east-west highway on which its economy depends.