South Ossetia claims Georgia moving tanks close to border

TBILISI (AFP) — Georgia and the United States will on January 4 sign a strategic partnership treaty, the Georgian foreign ministry said on Thursday, in a move that risks again provoking Russian wrath against Tbilisi.

Post-war tensions between Russia and Georgia are already running high, a fact underlined Wednesday when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched an extraordinary personal attack on his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili.

BEIJING, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The chiefs of the Chinese and Russian militaries held their first direct phone call on Monday, in what China's Xinhua news agency hailed as a sign of "deepening pragmatic cooperation" between the giant neighbours.

Chen Bingde, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, and his Russian counterpart, Nikolay Makarov, pledged to communicate frequently on the two armies' cooperation and other issues, in order to push forward their military ties.

Georgia fails to honour peace deal - Lavrov

Georgia hasn't fulfilled its obligations under the Medvedev-Sarkozy ceasefire plan, signed shortly after the war in South Ossetia, Russia's Foreign Minister has told Russian TV.

Speaking on the Vesti news channel on Monday, Sergey Lavrov accused Tbilisi of allowing Georgian troops to stray beyond agreed boundaries.

“We would like to draw the attention international observers in Georgia to the fact that now unfortunately the Georgian side is not even close to fulfilling its obligations to keep its troops in their quarters.”

World Tskhinvali says Georgia moves troops to S.Ossetia border

MOSCOW, January 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Defense Ministry of South Ossetia said Friday Georgia was moving troops towards its border, the republic's information and press committee said.

The committee cited South Ossetian Deputy Defense Minister Ibragim Gasseyev as saying that four Georgian armored vehicles and 16 trucks had approached the village of Mereti, Gori district.

Gasseyev said: "If Georgia is preparing provocations, it should think of possible consequences before it starts carrying them out."