US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heavily criticised Russia on Friday as she confirmed that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had signed a ceasefire deal with Russia.

The top US diplomat, in Georgia to back Saakashvili’s pro-Western Government, accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of not honouring his commitments under a ceasefire deal that was originally brokered by the French EU presidency earlier this week.

“With the signing of this accord, all Russian troops, and any paramilitary and irregular troops that entered with them must leave immediately,” Rice said at a news conference after talks with Saakashvili.

“The verbal assurance that President Medvedev gave that Russian military operations had stopped... clearly was not honoured,” Rice said.

Her comments came as Russian troops continued to hold positions deep inside Georgia, even outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia that was the spark of the current conflict.

Rice arrived earlier on Friday in Tbilisi following talks in southern France with President Nicolas Sarkozy. US officials had said that Rice was bringing Tbilisi “clarifications” on the six-point ceasefire agreement brokered earlier this week by France.

Moscow had agreed in principle to the deal and the self-styled presidents of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have signed it.

A few days ago, French President Nicolas Sarkozy got agreement on the six points from the Russians and then from the Georgians. And there was agreement on these points as a set of principles. It now needs to be a formal ceasefire, and that’s what we’re working on.

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