Soldiers in helmets inspected the boots of cars and asked drivers for identification on the main road from the capital Tbilisi to the central town of Gori.

Armoured vehicles and tanks stood nearby in fields, covered by camouflage tarpaulins.

The Kremlin has announced that Russia would start pulling back yesterday but has not given a specific time.

Russia mounted its biggest military deployment outside its borders since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union after Georgia sent a force on August 7 - 8 to try to recapture the rebel, Moscow-backed province of South Ossetia.

The European Union and the United States, wary of a drift back into conflict if there are delays, are pressing Moscow to finish the pullout quickly.

Both Brussels and Washington want to see international observers on the ground quickly to monitor the pullout but no arrangements for this have yet been made.

The United Nations said a first aid convoy managed to enter Gori on Sunday and said that while buildings did not appear to be very damaged, there were "clear signs of massive looting."

Kakha Lomaia, the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said yesterday morning he saw no sign of a Russian withdrawal.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in a dramatic shift from previous statements condemning Russians as "21st century barbarians" bent on ethnic cleansing, called yesterday for talks with Moscow.

"I appeal to you that after your armed forces leave Georgian territory, to start serious thinking and discussions about further negotiations, a further search for ways (to conduct) relations in order not to sow discord between our countries for good," Saakashvili said in the broadcast, made available to Reuters in advance.

Russian leaders have condemned Saakashvili as a dangerous maniac and have suggested privately that there is no need to speak to him because his own people will topple him before long.

The 10-day confrontation around South Ossetia has killed more than 170 Georgians, dealt a blow to the Georgian military, damaged the country's economy, disrupted road and rail links and drew Western criticism of Saakashvili's handling of the crisis.

Washington has strongly backed its close ally Georgia and accused Russia of "bullying" its small, former Soviet vassal.

Russia says some 1 600 people were killed in the initial Georgian attack on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, a figure which has not been independently confirmed.

Nampa-Reuters

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