by Nikolai Topuria
TKVIAVI, Georgia, Aug 20 (AFP) - Fighting died down in South Ossetia Friday as Georgia pulled troops back from its separatist pro-Moscow region after an unprecedented show of force that infuriated Russia and worried Washington.
An AFP reporter saw the last tanks and other artillery being withdrawn from the region by Georgian troops and there were rumors that a new round of peace talks involving Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania could be held in the region later Friday.
Moscow welcomed the move, with Boris Malakhov, a deputy foreign ministry spokesman telling Moscow Echo radio that it was a "right and overdue step."
But Georgian troops leaving the region, interviewed by AFP, said they wanted to press on into South Ossetia instead of being pulled back, fulfilling the new leadership's dream of winning hold over the fractured former Soviet republic, split up by ethnic strife.
"It's a mistake that we are being pulled back. If a war starts, we will never be able to make it back in. We cannot trust these negotiations," said David Hubuluri, a deputy colonel in the Georgian army who was seeing his troops pulled out of Ossetia.
A pro-Western reformer, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, 36, Thursday made the first direct admission since his election in January that his army was again present in South Ossetia, a region that effectively seceded from Georgia with Russia's help more than a decade ago.
He knew he was playing with fire, and as expected, Tbilisi's offensive on South Ossetia infuriated Russia, which supports the breakaway republic.
"Georgia must understand that such actions are inadmissible," the Russian foreign ministry said in a Thursday statement.
"The chance of getting off this dangerous, opportunistic course is running out," it said.
Talks between Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia -- which has ethnic links to North Ossetia, a republic within Russia -- have been launched at various levels but so far failed to produce any results.
The dispute has become a major sore point in relations between Georgia and Russia, which seeks to retain its historic influence in the volatile Caucasus and eyes US intentions in its own strategic backyard with deep suspicion.
South Ossetia falls within Georgian borders but is inhabited mainly by ethnic Ossetians. The adjacent province of North Ossetia, also dominated by Ossetians, is part of Russia. South Ossetia has demanded either independence or rule from Moscow.
Saakashvili, a US-trained lawyer elected president in January after leading a bloodless revolution that forced the resignation of his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, has vowed to restore the unity of Georgia.
In June, he successfully brought another pro-Russian breakaway region, Adjara, back under the authority of Tbilisi and forced its independence-minded leader to flee to exile in Moscow.
But that move, and the current campaign in South Ossetia, has stoked anger among Russian nationalists, who believe their country has a right to some measure of control over parts of Georgia.