Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised the withdrawal under terms of an EU-backed cease-fire agreement. How quickly the troops will leave is unclear, as is exactly where they will redeploy.
The agreement calls for troops to withdraw to position they held before fighting broke out Aug. 7 but also provides for unspecified extra security measures such as patrol rights for the Russians.
As of noon Monday, there were no apparent movement from Russian troops or tanks indicating a withdrawal had begun. The Russians control a wide swath of Georgia, including the country's main east-west highway, on which Gori sits.
"I think the Russians will pull out, but will damage Georgia strongly," Tbilisi resident Givi Sikharulidze told an AP television crew. "Georgia will survive, but Russia has lost its credibility in the eyes of the world."
Top American officials said Washington would rethink its relationship with Moscow after its military drive deep into its much smaller neighbor and called for a swift Russian withdrawal.
"I think there needs to be a strong, unified response to Russia to send the message that this kind of behavior, characteristic of the Soviet period, has no place in the 21st century," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
But neither Gates nor Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be specific about what punitive actions the U.S. or the international community might take.
Rice, who is flying to Europe on Monday to talk with NATO allies about what message the West should send to Russia, said Russia can't use "disproportionate force" against its neighbor and still be welcomed into the halls of international institutions.
"It's not going to happen that way," she said. "Russia will pay a price."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Medvedev of "serious consequences" in Moscow's relations with the European Union if Russia does not comply with the cease-fire accord.
Later, Sarkozy said in an opinion article published on Le Figaro newspaper's Web site that if Russia did not "rapidly and totally" follow the pullout specified in the cease-fire, he would "have to call an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the European Union to decide what consequences to draw."
Medvedev had told Sarkozy that Russian troops would begin pulling back on Monday, headed toward South Ossetia. He stopped short of promising they would return to Russia.
The war broke out after Georgia launched a barrage to try to retake control of South Ossetia, a Russian-backed separatist region that split off in the early 1990s. Russia had peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia and sent in thousands of reinforcements immediately, driving out Georgian forces. Georgian troops also were driven out of the small portion they had held of another separatist region, Abkhazia, although there are contradictory claims of whether Russians or their separatist allies took part in that fighting.
Russian troops also took positions deep into Georgia, including Gori, and in the Black Sea port of Poti. They also began a campaign to disable the Georgian military, destroying or carting away large caches of military equipment. An AP photographer saw Russian troops Sunday with rows of captured Georgian military vehicles in Tskhinvali, the capital of separatist South Ossetia.
Bolstered by Western support, Georgia's leader vowed never to abandon its claim to territory now firmly in the hands of Russia and its separatist allies, even though he has few means of asserting control. His pledge, echoed by Western insistence that Georgia must not be broken apart, portends further tension over separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Still, it's clear that Russia is determined to maintain a long-term presence in the two separatist areas.
The New York Times, citing anonymous U.S. officials who were familiar with intelligence reports, reported Sunday that the Russian military moved missile launchers into South Ossetia on Friday.
The U.S. officials told the Times that Russia deployed several SS-21 missile launchers to positions north of Tskhinvali. That would put the missiles within range of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, the Times reported on its Web site.
Russian peacekeepers were also in control of a Georgian power plant Sunday near Abkhazia.
In Gori, there were signs of a looser Russian grip—but also scenes of desperation as Georgians crowded around aid vehicles and grasped for loaves of bread. Virtually all shops were closed and the streets almost empty, save for clusters of people who gathered around aid vehicles and a basement bakery.
"I wouldn't say there's a humanitarian catastrophe, but there's an urgent need for primary products," Georgian national security council head Alexander Lomaia told journalists Monday on the outskirts of Gori.
Georgia's government minister for refugees, Koba Subeliani, said there were 140,000 displaced people in Tbilisi and the surrounding area.
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Associated Press writers David Nowak, Steve Gutterman and Jill Lawless in Moscow; Michael Fischer and Matti Friedman in Tbilisi, Georgia; and Deb Riechmann in Crawford, Texas, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
