Russia has started to withdraw troops from the conflict zone in Georgia in accordance with a French-brokered peace plan, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn of the General Staff said yesterday, although Georgia denied this.

"The pull-out of peacekeeping forces started today," he told a daily official briefing. "Russia has finished the operation on halting Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia."

He said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met the US ambassador to Russia earlier yesterday to discuss the pullout and other details.