(dpa) - Russia and Georgia exchanged prisoners Tuesday as Russian troops slowly began pulling out of the conflict region in Georgia.
The Russian military said the withdrawal was being delayed to avoid creating a power vacuum that could lead to further violence in northern Georgia.
"We clearly state that we will fulfill our obligations agreed to in the six-point plan, but we shall do so at a tempo dictated by conditions on the ground," Deputy Chief of Staff Anatoly Nagovitsyn told a Moscow press briefing.
In Brussels, NATO foreign ministers said they would suspend "business as usual" with Moscow, provoking a strong reaction from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who accused the Western alliance of being "biased" and "one-sided."
NATO was "whitewashing a criminal regime," Lavrov said, accusing the 26-member military alliance of rearming the current Georgian leadership.
In a conciliatory step, Russia agreed Tuesday to the stationing of 20 military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country holds the OSCE's rotating presidency, told journalists in Brussels the mission could be expanded to more than 90. Georgia also agreed to the mission.
Russian army troops remained fully in control of enclaves in Georgia's Gori and Poti regions on Tuesday, with forward troops continuing to improve their positions.
Russian forces were permitting Georgian civilian vehicles and foot traffic along most, but not all, roads in their sectors of control, but checked travelers for weapons.
Looting was in progress in the town Zugdidi, near the border between Georgia and its separatist province Abkhazia, an eyewitness said. Nearby in the town Senaki, Russian troops were demolishing a Georgian army base, Georgian media reported.
Russian forces disarmed 20 Georgian para-military soldiers operating in the Russian zone of control in the Black Sea port of Poti and turned them over to Georgian authorities.
Television images showed the Georgians riding blindfolded on Russian armored personnel carriers.
Earlier, Russian army officials at the Igoeti checkpoint, at the boundary between Georgian and Russian lines just 50 kilometres from Tbilisi, handed over 15 Georgian prisoners of war and received five Russian servicemen in exchange, including two pilots.
It was the first handover of prisoners since the outbreak of hostilities in South Ossetia less than two weeks ago.
Russia's air force made reconnaissance overflights of Georgian- controlled territory, and along Georgia's Black Sea shoreline.
Moscow released a list of Georgian military equipment captured in the conflict, including 65 tanks, more than 30 other armoured vehicles, Osa anti-aircraft systems, Czech-built self-propelled howitzers, and more than 2,000 rifles and machine guns.
"We will not give any of it back," said Ivan Konashekov, a Kremlin spokesman. "We will use it ourselves, or destroy it."
The Kremlin also specified its own aircraft losses in the war: three ground attack aircraft, and four high-level bombers.
Refugees were returning in small numbers both to the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and to Gori in central Georgia.
A Russian clean-up effort in Tskhinvali was in full swing, with downed power lines being restrung and the city's bread factory turning out loaves, Russia's Vesti television channel reported.
Ethnic Georgians were returning to Gori in smaller numbers as well, and the situation in the city generally was stable. Russian troops remained in the vicinity but were for the most part staying out of the city, eyewitnesses said.
The United Nations would donate 57 million dollars towards humanitarian aid in Georgia, a UN official in Tbilisi said on Tuesday.