Brussels - Red-faced European Union diplomats on Monday confirmed that a peace conference on the Georgian crisis, initially scheduled to be held in Geneva on October 15, would have to be moved because it clashes with a long-planned EU summit in Brussels.

"We arranged (the peace talks) for October 15 ... that was a bit of a slip-up because there will be a (European) council (summit). So it will be a little bit later," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after a meeting with EU counterparts.

Ankara - US military commander Admiral Mike Mullen on Monday said that NATO would respond to defend Georgia if it was attacked by Russia if and when Georgia becomes a member of NATO.

"Should Georgia become a member of NATO, NATO is committed to a collective defence when any country is attacked... if that happens, if and when they become members, and that is to be determined, NATO would respond in accordance with the alliance requirement," Mullen, the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff told reporters during a visit to Turkey on Monday.

Brussels - European Union diplomats on Monday said that a peace conference on the Georgian crisis, initially scheduled for October 15, would probably have to be moved.

"The date will certainly be moved. It will be moved some days before or after - more likely after," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, noting that an EU summit had already been planned for the same day.

Last week French President Nicolas Sarkozy, acting as the current chairman of the EU's rotating presidency, agreed with his Russian and Georgian counterparts that the EU would chair "international talks on the modalities of security and stability in Abkhazia and South Ossetia", with the talks due to begin in Geneva on October 15.

Brussels - The European Commission is ready to provide "up to 500 million euros" (714 million dollars) in additional aid to Georgia to help it recover from the war with Russia, EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Monday.

The European Union executive hopes that its proposal of a Stabilization and Growth Package for Georgia will be approved by EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The additional money comes on top of the roughly 100 million euros already being planned for Georgia this year, and it will add to any bilateral aid being provided by the EU's individual member states.

Moscow - Russia has withdrawn its last troops from western Georgia in accordance with a deal agreed with the European Union, reports said Saturday.

Russian soldiers on Saturday left the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti as well as five checkpoints between Poti and Senaki, Georgian media reports quoted the Georgian authorities and witnesses as saying.

Russian television showed the troops dismantling checkpoints at Poti before leaving in trucks. Around 150 Russian soldiers and ten tanks had been stationed in the port, locals said.

"This proves that the Russian state can strictly keep agreements," Russian Foreign Office spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told the Interfax news agency.

London, Sept. 13: Russia has described Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August as its 9/11, and claimed that Russia would have attacked Georgia even if it was a member of the NATO.

In a strikingly self-possessed three-hour meeting in Moscow, President Dmitry Medvedev made clear he would be prepared to defend Russians militarily wherever they were in the world.

Medvedev said he never imagined he would be confronted with such a foreign policy crisis so early in his tenure, but said it had irrevocably changed him and his country.