Istanbul  - Turkey gave permission on Thursday for US Navy ships to pass through Turkish-controlled waters to bring medical supplies to Georgia.

The permission for the US vessels to pass through the Bosporus Straits connecting the Mediterranean with the Black Sea followed several days of negotiations amid Turkish reluctance in the stand-off between Russia and the US over South Ossetia.

Controversy had previously arisen over whether the US had made a formal request for passage, under the terms of a decades-old maritime treaty.

The two US Navy ships - the "Comfort" and the "Mercy" - are carrying medical aid and are to be accompanied by one coastguard vessel.

London, Aug 21 : A fresh confrontation between Moscow and the West was looming after Russia announced that it was preparing to recognise the independence of the two Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia has indicated that it was no longer prepared to honour UN edicts on the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The State Duma, Russia''s parliament, has been recalled and will meet in emergency session on Monday to debate an Abkhaz appeal for immediate recognition of the region''s sovereignty.

The South Ossetian rebel leader, Eduard Kokoity, said he would follow suit imminently, The Telegraph reported.

Tbilisi/Moscow - The Kremlin on Thursday announced it had begun its first substantial troop withdrawals from Georgia, but army-operated road and rail checkpoints remained in place throughout the Russian area of occupation.

Combat elements of Russia's 58th Army were evacuating the vicinity of the north Georgian town Gori and would return to South Ossetia over the next two days, a Russian army spokesman told the Interfax news agency.

The first 100-vehicle column had reached the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali by 9 a. m. Thursday morning, the official said.

Georgian media showed images of Russian tanks and personnel carriers moving north from Gori, but Russian road checkpoints remained in place, eyewitnesses said.

Oslo - Russia has decided to freeze and cancel all military cooperation with Norway and other NATO members, the online edition of Oslo daily Aftenposetn reported Wednesday.

Georgia, Russia - Georgia's rebel region of Abkhazia will lodge a formal appeal with Moscow on Wednesday to be recognized as an independent state, the parliamentary speaker for the autonomous region told news agency Interfax.

Abkhazia will hold a special parliamentary session on Wednesday to consider an independence appeal to Russia for recognition by the breakaway region's president Sergei Bagapsh, Abkhaz parliament speaker Nugzar Ashuba said.

"We will request to recognize the independence of our republic," Ashuba was quoted by the agency as saying.

Brussels- The security situation in Georgia is improving by the day, but international aid workers still have no access to the breakaway province of South Ossetia, European Union officials said Wednesday.

Latest EU estimates put the number of refugees and people internally displaced by the conflict with Russia at 124,000. They are currently being hosted in 672 Georgian refugee centres.