(GORI) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday that "a long road" lay ahead to resolve issues remaining from August's Georgia-Russia war, even after Russian troops withdrew from buffer zones around Georgia's rebel regions.

On a visit to Georgia to check first-hand whether Russia was complying with an EU-brokered ceasefire, Kouchner said Russia had fulfilled its obligation to withdraw from buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Friday.

"The Russians needed to have left the adjacent zones, they have," he said, referring to the buffer zones.

But he also noted that Russian forces had "not yet" withdrawn fully to positions held before the war.

"Negotiations will begin in five days in Geneva. Nothing is perfect, it's a long road, step by step," he said. "For the moment it seems to be relatively satisfying."

Under an agreement brokered by the European Union in September, Russia had until Friday to withdraw from Georgian territory outside of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the so-called "buffer zones."

But the initial ceasefire agreement that ended the war in August called for Russian soldiers to withdraw to positions held before the conflict.

Russian forces remained Friday in at least two positions they did not hold prior to the conflict: the Akhalgori district of South Ossetia and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. Both areas were under Georgian control before August.

"We had said the adjacent zones first and the adjacent zones have been emptied," Kouchner said. "It's not the same step."

He added that "Akhalgori is a problem we are aware of and we will obviously begin discussing it in Geneva," referring to international talks on the crisis due to take place on October 15.

In a statement released in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed that Russian forces "have completed their planned withdrawal" from the buffer zones.

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."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters in Kyrgyzstan that Russia was fully complying with the ceasefire.

"Everything that depended on us we've done. All the obligations we undertook... we have fulfilled," he said.

But Georgia's Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Friday Russia had not fully respected the terms of the ceasefire and warned against a return to normal relations with Moscow.

After accompanying EU monitors on patrol near South Ossetia, Kouchner spoke with villagers returning to the area following the Russian withdrawal and later visited a tent camp in the city of Gori for Georgians who had fled their homes during the conflict.

"This is always very sad to see some houses destroyed, and the people coming back and discovering their belongings in such a desperate state," he said.

Kouchner was due later to hold talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The French foreign minister's visit came amid EU divisions over whether Russia has fulfilled its promise under the ceasefire to pull back from positions in Georgia after the August war.

Diplomats say some countries including the Baltic nations, Poland and Sweden are insisting Russia must fully withdraw to positions held before the war and reduce troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to pre-conflict levels.

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

More than 3,500 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in the two regions prior to the conflict and Moscow now intends to keep more than 7,600 troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent states in August.

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

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