(BRUSSELS) - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday confirmed that Russia had withdrawn its forces from the buffer zones it set up around Georgia's two separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"I am happy to announce that EU monitoring mission patrols have confirmed that Russian armed forces have completed their planned withdrawal from the areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Solana said in a statement.

Earlier, during a visit to a Georgian village near South Ossetia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, also confirmed the retreat.

"The Russians had to leave the adjacent zones and they have done so," he declared.

Solana said he hoped the pullout would "allow internally displaced people to return to their homes and contribute to the normalisation of living conditions in these areas."

He also hoped that the presence of some 300 EU monitors "will decrease tensions, contribute to a sense of security and enhance respect for the rule of law."

EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg Monday to evaluate whether Moscow has complied with the terms of a truce to end the hostilities between Russia and Georgia in August.

That decision, on which the 27 member state appear split, will go a long way to determining when suspended EU-Russia talks on a new wide-ranging partnership agreement can resume.

Friday was the deadline for a Russian troop pull-back in Georgia, a deadline closely watched by the European Union, which brokered an end to the August fighting over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.

Some EU countries are concerned that Russia has nonetheless boosted its forces in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which it has recognised as independent states.

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