Georgia: Russian tanks in Gori to help withdrawal

TBILISI, Georgia -- Russian tanks have returned to the Georgian city of Gori, but only to help facilitate the pullout of their forces, Georgia's Interior Ministry says.
Explosions heard in Gori Thursday were the result of Russian troops clearing unexploded ordnance, the Interior Ministry said.
Earlier, it said Georgian police had begun returning to Gori as Russian forces moved out.
The police would establish positions and checkpoints and try to keep law and order, the Interior Ministry said. Their return to the city was negotiated with Russia Wednesday. 
Once the police had established their presence, the Russians troops -- some of whom are still in the city -- would fully withdraw, Georgian officials said.
The police's return to Gori is a significant transition of power in what has been a major flashpoint of the conflict. Georgian troops retreated from Gori three days earlier under heavy fire from the Russians, and most of the city's residents fled amid the fighting.
Russian authorities said their troops had moved into the area to guard a large arsenal of weapons and other military hardware left unattended during the conflict over the separatist Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Georgia's territorial integrity was a dead issue, The Associated Press reported, indicating its troops were likely to remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
His comments came after scattered reports Russian troops were moving back into the Black Sea port city of Poti, where they have bombed targets, including a military installation and ships. Russian peacekeeping troops were also in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, just outside Abkhazia.
Video showed the Russians -- clearly wearing the blue helmets which signify their peacekeeper status -- at the official government residence in the town.
Georgia and Russia have alternately accused each other of violating a cease-fire brokered Tuesday, after Russian troops moved into the Gori region below South Ossetia.
U.S. President George W. Bush said he was concerned about the situation and was dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to France and then to Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, to confer with government leaders. She then planned to visit Brussels, Belgium, to talk with NATO officials about the situation.
Bush also said he had ordered Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to oversee a humanitarian mission to Georgia. The first cargo plane carrying U.S. aid arrived in Georgia Wednesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting as the president of the European Union, negotiated the cease-fire, which called for Russia and U.S. ally Georgia to return their forces to the positions they held August 6, before Georgia's crackdown on South Ossetia.
U.S. officials said it believed Russia may have 15,000 or more troops in the region, between 5,000 and 7,000 more than when the fighting began.
Lavrov said Russia's operations were about "peace-enforcement" in respect of Georgia, which "violates all of its obligations."
International agreements signed in the early 1990s allow Russian peacekeepers to maintain a presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as part of a force including Georgians and South Ossetians.
Meanwhile, U.S. defense officials said the Russian soldiers were trying to reinforce their rightful military presence in the two separatist regions.
"We believe the Russians are consolidating their enclaves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia ... and will not significantly expand their ground presence in Georgia," one official said. "We believe the Russians will fall back to their pre-crisis boundaries."
The official added: "We do see a halt to offensive military operations. If there is a formal cease-fire, we believe the Russians will adhere to it."
Meanwhile, BP confirmed Thursday that it had resumed pumping gas into its South Caucaus pipeline. The line runs from Baku in Azerbijan, through Tblisi in Georgia to Erzurum in Turkey. The Western Route oil export pipeline, which runs from Baku to Supsa, Georgia, on the Black Sea, remained shut.
BP shut down the two pipelines Tuesday morning as a "precaution" during the fighting.

South Ossetia has been the focus of Russian-Georgian fighting that began late last week after Georgia launched a military incursion into South Ossetia in an effort to rout rebels.
Russia -- which supports the separatists -- responded the next day, sending tanks across the border into South Ossetia. The conflict quickly spread to parts of Georgia and to Abkhazia.