As the world awaits the promised start of a Russian pullout of combat troops from Georgia, a plan to retain Russian "peacekeepers" in the country has sparked fresh tensions.
Western allies of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili have further raised the pressure on Moscow to quit Georgia as Russian troops dig in less than half an hour's drive from the capital Tbilisi.
The Russian plan to deploy a peacekeeping force of unspecified size and composition has led Georgian officials to fear it could turn into an open-ended occupation.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says the number of people displaced in the conflict has reached 158,600, and there ar scenes of desperation in the town of Gori as a trickle of supplies begins arriving.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has given no firm deadline for completion of the combat troop pull-out.
Mr Medvedev made the promise in a telephone call to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered a Russian-Georgian ceasefire agreement, but gave no firm deadline for completion of the pull-out.
Russian troops remained in position around Gori, which commands the approaches to South Ossetia and the main east-west highway and should be central to covering a Russian withdrawal.
Mr Saakashvili, whose failed military attempt to retake the pro-Russian breakaway region of South Ossetia triggered a Russian backlash that shocked the West, called for international monitoring of the pullout.
Russia's Defence Ministry, underlining continued high tension between the two countries, said Georgia was planning a "major provocative act" in the city of Gori, captured by Russian forces on Tuesday as they fanned out from the disputed region into the Georgian heartland.
It said Georgia was forming bands of mercenaries who would be given Russian uniforms and told to loot and pillage.
Georgia issued a swift denial. "Such a provocation would only be staged by the Russian side, with the aim of keeping Russian military units in the conflict zone," the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov, now a familiar figure touring the area of his command around Gori in a Georgian four-wheel-drive, could not say when he would be moving out. "We were the first in, so we'll be the last out," he said.
There was no sign of shooting and troops appeared relaxed.
