U.S. welcomes Russian withdrawal from Georgia

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Wednesday welcomed Russia's final military withdrawal from the buffer zone adjacent to the breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia.

"You can see that Russia is, in fact, starting to comply with the Sept. 8 agreement with the EU," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a news briefing.

Under the accord negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian troops must pull out by Oct. 10 from Georgia to where they were before the Georgia-Russia conflict in August.

"We'll have an assessment for you next week, once the Russians say that they have completed their activities," McCormack said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Wednesday that Russian forces would complete their pullout from the buffer zone in Georgia.

"I would like to inform you that by midnight today, the evacuation of Russian troops will be complete," Medvedev told a press conference in Evian, France two days before a pullout deadline set in an EU-brokered peace agreement.