Tbilisi/Moscow - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday again called on Russia to withdraw from Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia will never accept Russian occupation of either region nor Moscow's recognition of their independence, Saakashvili was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
The Georgian leader made the statements at a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in the Georgia city of Batumi on the Black Sea.
Georgia is to bring up the "annexation" of the two regions at a south Caucasus conference planned for October 15 in Geneva, Saakashvili added.
Kouchner named as "a problem" Russian troops' having not yet left the area around the town of Akhalgori, which would be a violation of the accord agreed between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in September.
According to the agreement, Russian forces were to leave the "buffer zones" around South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Friday October 10 at the latest.
"I welcome that the majority of the soldiers have withdrawn," said Kouchner. "But Akhalgori is a problem to which we have to return to in Geneva."
France is the current president of the European Union.
