Key points from Russian General Staff briefing

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of Russia's General Staff, on Thursday held his daily briefing on the Russian army's actions in Georgia.

Following are some key excerpts from the briefing:

ON U.S. AID TO GEORGIA

"We have information that American military-transport aviation say they are delivering a certain humanitarian cargo to Tbilisi airport, though they said we had bombed the airport two days ago."

"Lets ask them will they invite you (the media) to check whether it is humanitarian or not?... What is in it (the cargo) in reality?... It is of major concern to Russians."

ON CONTINUING CLASHES

"The last 24 hours, we are just watching the situation. There are still snipers out there, certain groups have gotten through, and the provocations are continuing."

"Perhaps now it is against a different background, but there are always these leftover problems."

"A military force that has not been warmed up, you can tell it to stop and it will stop. But these troops, you might say, are still carrying out the previous mission. There are still a lot of problems."

"But we will settle things with everyone, and right now establishing peace is the main issue."

ALLEGED OIL PIPELINE BOMB ATTEMPT

"Aside from an ecological disaster, it wouldn't result in anything.

"It is our principle that oil pipelines do not interest us."

"Why would anyone bomb oil pipelines? We did not bomb them."

ON BLACK SEA FLEET

"We have one general commander for the Black Sea fleet. It is the President of Russia. And all commands from outside are illegitimate to us."

ON RUSSIAN TROOPS IN GEORGIAN PORT OF POTI

"We are no longer fighting, believe me... We have a different problem now. Poti is one of those, and the geography is probably going to change. We switched into the capacity of peacekeepers."

"As far as Poti and other places are concerned, let's agree with you that if it (the place) is inside the peacekeeping zone of responsibility, then it is legitimate for intelligence, information and special groups to be there."

"We can't sit and do nothing, we need to proceed with intelligence operations and react adequately. This is our task, including during a time of peace."

"When the six-point peace plan came into force we had to make some contact with the local authorities."

"So what was reported (in the media) as 50 tanks was actually a small number of special forces tasked with moving in to establish contact with local authorities... We are now trying to work with them to carry out the commitments both sides have taken on."

ON RUSSIAN LOSSES

"It was not easy for the Georgian side to accept defeat. The fighting was very intense at the end with both sides using heavy weapons."

"This is the main cause for a large number of casualties... You know, it cost a great amount of blood to take Berlin."

"There have been some further losses (among Russian peacekeepers) from the work of clearing mines. This is a dirty job...and the areas in question have been mined quite heavily."

ON TROOPS WITHDRAWAL

"We are planning it. It depends on many factors. I can't give you the date. We have stopped building up troops."

"Georgian fighters in the Kodor gorge (in Abkhazia) are continuing to give up their arms and retreat. This is going on without conflict."

ON DOWNING GEORGIAN DRONES

"I think there will be regular leaks in the media which we will have to clarify. On (Georgian) drones - when I was in my office yesterday, there was one (downed by Russian forces), when I drove past the Moscow embankment, there was already two. In the morning there were three. In fact, there were none."