The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tbilisi

Georgia and Russia agreed Wednesday to a French-brokered peace plan after Moscow ordered a halt to its military onslaught, but there was scepticism whether the conflict is truly over.

"There is a text. It has been accepted in Moscow, it was accepted here in Georgia. I have the agreement of all the protagonists," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at a news conference, flanked by his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili. The six-point plan, which obliges the parties to halt fighting, will be reviewed by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, according to Sarkozy. Saakashvili insisted the deal does not compromise Georgia's territorial integrity, and a contentious reference in the plan to negotiations on the "future status" of breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia was changed to discussion on how to ensure "security and stability" there instead.