World in News

Georgian president signs cease-fire deal

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire accord that orders Russian troops to withdraw, calling the Russians "barbarians" who had been plotting for months to invade and occupy his country's sovereign soil.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also signed the pact - and that Russian troops must now withdraw from Georgia as outlined in the deal brokered earlier in the week by France's president.

"Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said, calling for the "immediate and orderly withdrawal" of Moscow's military and all paramilitary troops that went with the convoys.

The Russian pullout "must take place - and take place now," she said, speaking at the pro-Western Georgian leader's side at a joint news conference outside his presidential palace in central Tbilisi.

Rice flew to the Georgian capital Friday to discuss the cease-fire with Saakashvili after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, saying the immediate goal was to get Russian combat forces out of Georgia.

She warned that Russia's military action had wider implications for its relationship with the U.S. - and the West.

"The Russian attack on Georgia has profound implications for Russia," she said.

Rice said the time has come "to begin a discussion of the consequences of what Russia has done. This calls into question what role Russia really plans to play in international politics."

She said the more difficult questions about the status of Georgia's two separatist provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia - and Russia's presence there - would be discussed later.

Rice said a key concern was getting observers into Georgia to monitor the cease-fire deal. She said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country currently heads a leading European security organization, assured her international monitors could be in place within days.

She also noted humanitarian aid already being provided by the United States and other nations and said that access for these supplies "must be immediate and unimpeded."

"When the security situation in Georgia is stabilized," Rice said, "we will turn immediately to reconstruction efforts."