Russian troops continued to defy international pressure to end their occupation of Georgia as officials in Moscow backtracked on a pledge to withdraw fully by the end of today.

The Times witnessed tanks dug in on the hills overlooking a Russian checkpoint at Igoeti, 25 miles from Tbilisi on Georgia’s main east-west highway. Soldiers there said that they had received no orders to pull out and no indication of when they might leave.

Two armoured vehicles were seen moving towards the Igoeti checkpoint from the direction of Gori, the northern Georgian city that remains under Russian control.

Troops wearing Russian peacekeeping badges refused to allow journalists to pass the next checkpoint, saying that they had received orders not to let anyone approach Gori.

However in Gori itself there was a reduced Russian presence. Tanks that had blocked a bridge from the city had pulled out this morning, making it possible to reach Gori from Tbilisi via back roads and avoiding Russian checkpoints.

Russia said that it would complete a partial pullback of its troops by the end of today, despite a pledge from President Medvedev of Russia that all but 500 soldiers would have left Georgia by then.

President Medvedev has repeatedly told the West that his forces would leave Georgia, but they so far failed to meet any of the deadlines that have been set.

The United States and the European Union are growing frustrated at Russia’s intransigence and suspicious of the Kremlin’s real motives.

A senior US military officer said in Tbilisi today that the withdrawal was “far too little, far too slow”.

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