Russian troops also controlled the central Georgian city of Gori and the village of Igoeti, about 30 miles west of the capital of Tbilisi. Both are along Georgia's main east-west highway.

Russian soldiers were digging permanent structures, building high earthen berms and stringing barbed wire in at least three spots on the road between Gori and Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital.

Some Russian troops and military vehicles were on the move, including 21 tanks an AP reporter saw heading toward Russia from inside South Ossetia. Columns of heavy weaponry — including tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks — were also seen moving in both directions on the road from Gori to Tskhinvali.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner hailed the report of tank movements as a positive step.

"We are waiting ... for the Russians to respect their word," Kouchner told reporters in Paris. "We waited twice with dashed hopes. This time, it appears that there is at least the beginning of a fulfillment."

But in Washington, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the moves appeared to be cosmetic.

"There has not been much evidence of any significant Russian withdrawals. There have been what I would call some minimal movements to date," he said.

Outside Tskhinvali, several ethnic-Georgian villages were burning — many days after fighting had ended — and bore evidence of destruction from looting. Some Ossetians in the area said they were not prepared to live side-by-side with Georgians anymore.

"It's not they, it's we who will erase them from the face of earth," said Alan Didurov, 46.

The EU agreement says Russian forces can withdraw to a so-called "security zone" that extends 4.3 miles into Georgia from South Ossetia.

Russian forces are also allowed a presence on Georgian territory in a security zone along the border with Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian region, under a 1994 UN-approved agreement that ended a war there. But Poti is 20 miles south of Abkhazia and lies well outside the security zone. It is also at least 95 miles west of the nearest point in South Ossetia.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told The Associated Press late Wednesday that Russia was seizing strategic spots in Georgia even as it thinned out troops elsewhere. He called the Russian moves "some kind of deception game."

Port and city officials say Poti has been looted by the Russians over the past week, and Russian forces carried tables and chairs out on armored personnel carriers Thursday, while residents protested against Russia's continued grip on the country.