"It's becoming more and more the outlaw in this conflict," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of Russia, escalating a stream of criticism from Washington.

"They intend and probably still do intend to strangle Georgia and its economy," she said in Brussels, where she attended a NATO meeting on the crisis.

In Gori, a strategic town on Georgia's main east-west highway, six Russian armored personnel carriers, three tanks and two other vehicles headed towards Russia on Tuesday in what Moscow said was the start of its promised withdrawal.

But nearby other Russian troops were seen digging trenches near artillery positions. In parts of western Georgia, far from the breakaway South Ossetia region at the heart of the conflict, Russian forces also showed no sign of preparing to depart.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in Tbilisi, said continued delays would seriously damage Moscow's reputation.

"With every commitment (to leave) and with every failure to live up to that commitment, the international pressure will grow (on Russia)," he told a joint news conference with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"A country relies on the word of its president being its bond," he said.

The U.S. Treasury said Russia had hurt its business climate with its decision to send troops into Georgia, which it called a "Cold War tactic."

The crisis erupted after Georgia sent its military on August 7-8 to try to recapture the rebel, Moscow-backed province of South Ossetia and Russia responded with overwhelming force.

MEDVEDEV PLEDGE

The Kremlin quoted Medvedev as telling French President Nicolas Sarkozy by telephone that most Russian forces would withdraw to Russia or to South Ossetia by August 22, leaving some troops in a buffer zone around the breakaway region.

Medvedev also told Sarkozy he agreed to the presence of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the buffer zone, a separate French statement said.

NATO ministers, meeting in emergency session in Brussels on Tuesday, agreed to suspend regular contacts with Russia. But they did not announce moves to speed up Georgian accession to the Western military alliance, as Tbilisi had hoped.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said NATO's response to the conflict was biased and accused the Atlantic alliance of siding with a "criminal regime" in Tbilisi.

At the United Nations, Western powers pushed for a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Russian withdrawal from Georgia, but veto-holding Russian said it could not support it.

A draft text referred to "the territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders."

Russia has said the West should "forget about" Georgian territorial integrity because South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway, pro-Russian region, will not be able to live in one state with Georgia again.

Saakashvili, branded a dangerous madman by Moscow, reaffirmed his determination to resist what he sees as Russian attempts to bully Georgia back into Soviet-era subservience.

"The Russian occupation of my country is untenable, it cannot be sustained," he told reporters, vowing a campaign of "civilian, peaceful" resistance to the Russian troops.

But stepping up pressure on Tbilisi, Moscow closed its land border with Georgia to citizens who are not from the CIS, a grouping of former Soviet states that Georgia's parliament voted last week to leave.

The head of Russia's FSB domestic spy service, Alexander Bortnikov, ordered extra security to foil what he said was a plan by Georgian security to carry out "terrorist acts" inside Russia. Georgia dismissed the accusation as "nonsense."

Air, rail and sea links between Russia and its former Soviet vassal have already been cut. The virtual blockade has hurt Georgia's economy, which depends heavily on Russia.

Russian checkpoints now block the main east-west highway, a vital trade route which links Tbilisi with Turkey and Georgia's Black Sea ports.

Western powers have condemned Russia's response as disproportionate, while Moscow says it was necessary to protect Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia and prevent Georgia carrying out "genocide."

The Russian military campaign has been popular at home but has worsened already bad relations with Washington.

Russia's navy cancelled a September visit by a U.S. frigate in the latest sign of official displeasure. The move followed a decision last week by Washington to pull out of a four-nation naval exercise with Russia in the Pacific.

Rice said Russia had used its overwhelming force against a small neighbor and former Soviet republic.

"Well, that's what they've done — wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, reports of the use of munitions that should never be used against civilians, the harassment along highways of legitimate comers, the closing of the Port of Poti, which is now starting to affect neighboring states," she said.

(Writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Richard Meares)

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