U.S. demands Russia withdraw troops from Georgia
TBILISI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday demanded Russia withdraw all of its troops from Georgia.
"Our most urgent task today is the immediate and orderly withdrawal of Russian armed forces and the return of those forces to Russia," Rice told reporters after talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
"Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said. "This is no longer 1968."
Moscow and Washington have been trading barbs over Georgia, an ally of the United States aspiring to join NATO, after Russian troops routed Georgian forces which had tried to take control of a Georgian separatist region backed by Moscow.
Russian units then went into several towns in Georgia proper, provoking the ire of Washington, with top U.S. officials invoking memories of the Soviet Union's occupation of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
"The Russian attack on Georgia had profound implications and will have profound implications for its relations with its neighbors and the world," she said.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Michael Stott)
