No EU ultimatum yet to Russia: Kouchner

(PARIS) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that European governments were not ready yet to issue an ultimatum to Russia over demands for a troop pullback from Georgia.

"We don't want to threaten," Kouchner told a news conference, but he added: "We are serious. There is a red line. The red line is the withdrawal of the troops. They must withdraw the troops."

Kouchner sounded cautiously optimistic that Russia would follow through on its pledge to withdraw from Georgia as outlined in a French-brokered ceasefire agreement that President Dmitry Medvedev signed on Saturday.

"It seems to me, and I may be completely mistaken, that we will see this beginning of a troop withdrawal today and in the night," Kouchner said.

He added that President Nicolas Sarkozy may convene an emergency EU meeting on the Georgia crisis "in the coming days" if Russia fails to pull back its forces.

"At a given moment, we will be faced with ultimatums," said Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

But he added "We are not there at all."

Russia announced it had begun to pull out its forces, but Georgia disputed the assertion, saying it saw "no signs" of a withdrawal.

Russian troops entered the former Soviet republic in response to a Georgian offensive on August 7 against separatists in South Ossetia.

Using tanks, artillery and air power, Russsian troops managed to sweep across the country, stopping just some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the capital Tbilisi.