Tbilisi, Georgia/Moscow - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili early Tuesday called the latest Russian agreement to withdraw from Georgian territory a step forward."

Saakashvili held a joint press conference after midnight with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had arrived late Monday from Moscow after extracting a promise from Russian Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to withdraw and to return to a ceasefire agreement that ended the five-day Caucasus war in last month.

Moscow - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose country had a brief war with Russia last month, Sunday said he expected billions of euros to help build up his country after the conflict.

"As for as I know, several billion euros will come from Europe and various institutions," Saakashvili said, according to remarks broadcast via state television from Tiblisi.

The European Union has not yet organized a donor's conference, and European Union ministers have called for an investigation of who started the conflict.

Prague - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose country had a brief war with Russia last month, warned Sunday that Moscow could trigger more armed conflicts in the former Soviet territories.

In an interview with public broadcaster Czech Television, Saakashvili said a potential flashpoint is the politically tense Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, which is part of Ukraine.

"Russia has already distributed more passports in the Crimea" than in the Georgian breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Saakashvili said. "I think we should not be blind."

Crimea, a popular Soviet-era tourist destination, hosts a Russian naval base.

The Hague  - Russia and Georgia are to put their differences over Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday.

The Hague-based ICJ, the highest UN court, seeks to resolve matters of international law disputed by state governments. From Monday until Wednesday next week it will hold a public hearing on proceedings instituted by Georgia against Russia.

Riga - Ever since Russia and Georgia launched an information war in the world's media, the Baltic nations have been exposed to two often-conflicting viewpoints about the war and its consequences.

So much so that Baltic officials began pondering how to curb broadcasts from neighbouring Russia. Or at least to be able to compete with them.

Russian television channels, available in the Baltics on cable, showed the Russian military presence in Georgia as positive. They hailed last week's EU summit, where European nations stopped short of sanctions on Moscow, as a success of the Russian foreign policy.

Moscow, Poti, Georgia - Russia's foreign ministry on Friday ruled out a military response to the increased US presence in the Black Sea as a US warship was due to arrive in Georgia.

The USS Mount Whitney warship is the third US vessel to dock in Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti to deliver supplies as part of a 1- billion-dollar aid package.

Russia's powerful Premier Vladimir Putin had previously threatened a military response to the build-up of NATO's naval fleet off the coast of Georgia.

Six NATO vessels, including the three US ships, now patrol those waters. The Mount Whitney was set to arrive at 1400 GMT.