(GORI) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was in Georgia Friday to determine first-hand whether Russian forces had withdrawn as required by an EU-brokered ceasefire agreement.

After arriving in the Georgian city of Gori near the rebel region of South Ossetia, Kouchner went on patrol with European Union monitors and was later to visit a camp for people displaced by August's Russia-Georgia war.

"We need to confirm that they (the Russians) have left all of the territories that they were to have left before October 10," he told AFP before departing for Georgia.

Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was also to hold talks with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Friday, when the EU deadline for the withdrawal expires.

His visit comes amid EU divisions over whether Russia has fulfilled its promise under the ceasefire to pull back from positions in Georgia after the war over South Ossetia.

Diplomats say some countries including the Baltic nations, Poland and Sweden are insisting Russia must fully withdraw to positions held before the war and reducetroops in South Ossetia and Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia, to pre-conflict levels.

But for France and many other member states, the Russian withdrawal from "buffer zones" adjacent to the rebel regions, said to have been completed Wednesday, was the only condition to be fulfilled, diplomats say.

About 2,500 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the two regions prior to the conflict and Russia now intends to keep more than 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent states in August.

Russian forces were also still controlling two areas under Georgian control prior to the conflict, the Akhalgori district in South Ossetia and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.

Tbilisi insists Russian forces must withdraw from the two areas in order to comply with the ceasefire agreement.

Kouchner said before departing that the issue of Akhalgori "will be part of another phase" and that it would be discussed at talks in Geneva next week.

Russian troops and tanks surged into Georgia on August 8 to beat back an overnight Georgian offensive to wrest control of South Ossetia from separatists.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.