Elsewhere in Georgia, it appeared very clear that Russian troops were staying put, building ramparts around tanks and posting sentries on a hill near Igoeti, a central Georgia town only 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tbilisi.

Russian troops still effectively control the main artery running through the western half of Georgia because they surround the strategic central city of Gori and additionally the city and air base of Senaki in the west. Both cities are on the main east-west highway that slices through two Georgian mountain ranges. Russia also confirmed Sunday that it had taken over a major power plant in western Georgia.

Rice noted that the text of the cease-fire, negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current leader of the European Union, outlined a very limited mandate for the soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers who were in Georgia when hostilities escalated. She said these soldiers can go on limited patrols within the two separatist areas but in Georgia

An Associated Press Television News team saw Russian soldiers pulling out of Poti on Saturday after sinking Georgian naval vessels and ransacking the port. A picture of Saakashvili in the looted Coast Guard office had been vandalized.

"They have robbed the military base and taken almost everything, and they have burned or sunk the stuff they could not carry," port worker Zurab Simonia said.

A large anti-Russian banner hung Sunday in front of the Parliament building in central Tbilisi: "No war, Russia go home."

"We have no guarantee that the Russians will keep to their agreement," one worried Tbilisi resident told an AP television crew. She did not give her name for fears of reprisal.