US combat troops could leave Iraq by 2011 under the terms of a deal awaiting approval by Iraq’s parliament and presidency, an Iraqi official has said. The draft security agreement also calls for US forces to withdraw from all Iraqi urban areas by June 2009, and includes a compromise allowing US soldiers some immunity under Iraqi law.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer accused Russia of failing to respect a French-brokered peace plan requiring both sides to move troops back to their positions before Georgia launched an offensive on the separatist region of South Ossetia. This “is not happening at the moment,” the NATO chief said at an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels today.

American officials have demanded that Russian troops pull back from their positions inside Georgia and that the Russian military presence in the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia be limited to the Russian peacekeeping force that was there before the conflict erupted earlier this month.

A ceasefire continued to hold and President Dmitry Medvedev assured his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian regular forces “from tomorrow … will begin withdrawing,” the Kremlin said. However, new tensions gathered over Russia’s longer term military plans in the fervently pro-Western ex-Soviet republic.

Georgia’s pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili announced he had signed the EU-brokered ceasefire during a visit to Tbilisi by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “With the signing of this accord, all Russian troops, and any paramilitary and irregular troops that entered with them, must leave immediately,” Rice said in Tbilisi.

Under a French-brokered ceasefire agreed on Tuesday, Russian and Georgian forces were to return to positions they had before Georgia launched its offensive against South Ossetia last Thursday night. But the Georgian interior ministry said that Russian troops were “destroying” Gori and demolishing installations in the port city of Poti.

President George W. Bush’s visit to CIA headquarters, which ran nearly two hours over schedule, came as US officials tried to work through frequently contradictory and confusing reports from the ground on Russia’s military offensive in the former Soviet republic.

Europe and the United States must make clear to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev — and the real power player, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — that more aggression and lies will not be tolerated. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice must leave no doubt that there can be no military solution to the dispute with Russia.

The entire Georgian column that was headed towards Gori has now turned around and headed back towards the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Whilst some Georgian soldiers have been armed and trained by the United States military they know they are no match for the superior Russian force.

A day after the truce was brokered by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Russia faced mounting criticism in the West for its continuing military offensive in Georgia, and US President George W Bush demanded that Russian troops withdraw from the country.