Bush warns Russia over disputed provinces

The cease-fire deal, which Saakshvili signed Friday after lengthy talks with Rice, calls for both Russian and Georgian forces to pull back to positions they held before fighting erupted Aug. 8.

Russian forces withdrew Saturday from the center of a town not far from Tbilisi, the capital. But Lavrov suggested there would be no immediate broader withdrawal. Lavrov said Russia would strengthen its peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, and that afterward, Russian forces sent in to handle the conflict would be withdrawn.

Asked how much time that would take, he responded: "As much as is needed."

Rice bristled at this, saying that the text of the cease-fire agreement, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate only for Russian peacekeepers who were in Georgia at the time hostilities escalated. She said the agreement specifies that these initial peacekeepers can have limited patrols in a prescribed area within the conflict zone and would not be allowed to go into Georgian urban areas or tie up a cross-country highway.

According to Rice, Medvedev told Sarkozy that the minute the Georgian president signed the cease-fire agreement, Russian forces would begin to withdraw.

"So, from my point of view — and I am in contact with the French — the Russians are perhaps already not honoring their word," Rice said.

But she added that now that the Russian president had signed it too, she expects Russian forces to withdraw expeditiously.

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