European leaders confirmed Friday that Russians had met a deadline to withdraw troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

European leaders confirmed Friday that Russians had met an Oct. 10 deadline to withdraw troops from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia removed its last checkpoints from the buffer zones outside the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, fulfilling a key requirement of a cease-fire agreement.

Russia accused Georgia of "seeking to provoke new hostilities" even as Russian peacekeepers were dismantling checkpoints outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian forces dismantled a checkpoint and were working on others as an Oct. 10 deadline neared for a pullout from buffer zones outside South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Moscow strengthened its relations with South Ossetia and Abkhazia even as the Bush administration intensified its warnings that Russia was "on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance."

Georgia's border disputes with the Russian-backed breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia should not be used as an excuse by the West to keep Georgia out of NATO, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance said Monday.

While Georgia's separatist enclaves Abkhazia and South Ossetia celebrate formal recognition of their independence by Russia, hardly a day goes by without bloodshed in North Caucasus regions Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Talks between the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Russia on sending more international monitors to South Ossetia and Abkhazia hit an impasse Friday.

The regional power struggle prompted by the crisis in Georgia intensified Tuesday when Moscow said thousands of troops would stay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the European Union promised deeper ties with Ukraine to counterbalance growing Russian influence.