Tbilisi/Moscow  - Georgia said Monday that Russian forces, rather than showing signs of withdrawal, had dug in at checkpoints over the weekend in the Black Sea port of Poti, deep inside the former Soviet state.

"The Russian occupation force is reinforcing, rather than vacating, its checkpoints near the strategic commercial port of Poti," the Georgian government said in a statement.

It said that armoured personal carriers and about 60 troops were reinforcing two checkpoints in the strategic port, where a US battleship delivered aid last week.

Moscow - Four Russian navy ships will participate in joint exercises with Venezuela in the Caribbean this year, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

The Russian statement came after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the arrival of Russian ships on national television Sunday, saying they would dock in the South American country by late November.

Andrei Nesterenko confirmed that "before the end of the year" the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, an anti-submarine ship, tugboat and big sea tanker would enter Venezuelan waters.

Moscow, September 7 : Russian forensic experts have said that archaeologists could discover another site where the remains of the children of Russia''s last tsar are buried.

Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, their four daughters and son, and several servants, were shot dead by the Bolsheviks in a basement in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in the early hours of July 17, 1918.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitri Medvedev accused the United States on Saturday of delivering weapons to Georgia under the cover of humanitarian aid.

Speaking at an executive committee session of Russia's largely advisory State Council, Medvedev said the West should stop arming Georgia and support Russia's position in the South Caucasus conflict.

"It would be interesting to see how (the United States) would react if we used battleships to bring aid to the Caribbean islands recently hit by hurricanes," Medvedev was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev hosted the heads of six ex-Soviet states at the summit of military alliance in Moscow in an effort to bolster support in Russia's standoff with the West over Georgia.

The presidents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a loose Soviet-era alliance Moscow hopes to shape into a military counterweight to NATO, were set to sign a statement Friday criticizing Georgia's military campaign.

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.