Moscow - Russia has withdrawn its last troops from the Georgian port of Poti, reports said Saturday.

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

On Monday French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, brokered in Moscow a deal to end Russia's current military occupation of Georgia.

Manila - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Saturday it was providing its first-ever public sector loan worth 40 million dollars to help Georgia rehabilitate services and infrastructure damaged in the recent conflict with Russia.

The Manila-based ADB said a 32-year concessional loan will be extended to Georgia's Municipal Development Fund, which will in turn provide funds to local governments to rebuild infrastructure, and improve quality, coverage and continuity of critical urban services.

Brussels - If European Union foreign ministers approve a ceasefire observation mission to Georgia as expected on Monday, they will be stepping into a diplomatic minefield.

Officials in Brussels say that if the bloc does not mandate its observers to cover the whole territory of Georgia, including, crucially, the rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it will appear to be accepting their independence before international peace talks have even begun.

But if the mandate does cover the breakaway regions, the EU will risk an outright rejection of its peace initiative from Russia - something which would cause it a massive loss of face.

Moscow - The ceasefire between Russia and Georgia has not calmed down the Caucasus. While inhabitants of Georgia's separatist enclaves Abkhazia and South Ossetia celebrate formal recognition by Russia as independent nations, hardly a day goes by without bloodshed in Russia's North Caucasus regions Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Riga - NATO's top official reassured Baltic nations of their security as members of the alliance Friday in the wake of Russia's war with Georgia.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - all former Soviet satellites - have been concerned for their security after watching Russian tanks roll into Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

"Nobody should doubt that this alliance ... given when necessary will do what is necessary," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told journalists in the Latvian capital Riga after talks with Latvian President Valdis Zatlers and the three Baltic foreign ministers.

Riga - Diplomats from NATO nations will visit Georgia next week despite Russian objections at the show of support for the country's pro-Western government, the alliance's top civilian said Friday.

The North Atlantic Council, which groups ambassadors from all 26 NATO members, plans a two-day trip starting Monday that includes a stop in Gori, a strategic town shelled by Russian forces during last month's fighting between the two countries.