By Conor Sweeney and Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's military announced plans onTuesday to station about 7,600 troops in Georgia's separatistregions, a sharp increase on the numbers deployed before Moscowsent in troops last month.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops wouldstay in South Ossetia and Abkhazia for a long time to preventany "repeat of Georgian aggression."
Moscow's intervention in Georgia last month, in which itsforces crushed an attempt by Tbilisi to retake South Ossetia,drew widespread international condemnation and prompted concernover the security of energy supplies.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced the plannedforce levels one day after French President Nicolas Sarkozyleft Moscow with a commitment from the Kremlin to withdraw fromundisputed Georgian territory within a month.
But there was no explicit mention in the French-brokereddeal of the Russian forces inside breakaway Abkhazia and SouthOssetia, despite previous Western demands that all troopsreturn to their pre-conflict positions.
Briefing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on negotiationswith the regions' leaders, Serdyukov said: "We have alreadyagreed on the contingent -- in the region of 3,800 men in eachrepublic -- (and on) its structure and location."
Medvedev ordered Serdyukov to determine how Russia wouldimplement a request from South Ossetia and Abkhazia "to deploybases" in those regions.
DIPLOMATIC TIES
Russia angered the West last month by recognising Abkhaziaand South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in separatistwars in the 1990s, as independent states. Nicaragua is the onlyother state to have recognised their independence.
Lavrov also met the two separatist regions' foreignministers on Tuesday to formally establish diplomatic ties, astep likely to further irritate Western governments.
Before fighting broke out in Georgia last month, Russia hada peacekeeping force of 1,000 servicemen in South Ossetia and acontingent of about 2,500 in Abkhazia. They were operatingunder a peacekeeping mandate dating back to the 1990s.
Both the European Union and the United States have warnedRussia it could face serious consequences over its actions inGeorgia, but the scope for punitive measures is limited.
Europe depends on Russia for more than a quarter of its gassupplies and Washington needs Russia's cooperation in effortsto curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Russia said it was morally obliged to send in its militarylast month to prevent what it called a genocide in theseparatist regions by a Georgian government egged on by itsally, the United States.
THREATENED WALKOUT
After four hours of talks at a castle outside Moscow onMonday, Medvedev and European Union leaders led by Sarkozyagreed that Russian forces in buffer zones outside SouthOssetia and Abkhazia would pull back within a month.
They are to be replaced with an international monitoringforce which will include a 200-strong EU contingent.
Lavrov said the agreement was a vindication for Russiabecause it included an EU guarantee that Georgia would not useforce again against the separatists.
"The responsibility for any attempts of aggression byGeorgia will rest with the international presence," he told anews conference.
On the Russian troops' presence in the breakaway regions,he said: "They will be there for a long time, at least for theforeseeable period. That is necessary to not allow a repeat ofGeorgian aggression."
The fighting in Georgia worried energy markets because itwas waged near the route of an oil pipeline that can pump up to1 million barrels of crude per day from the Caspian Sea. Thepipeline is favoured by the West because it bypasses Russia.
A French official said Monday's talks were so stormy thatSarkozy, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency,threatened to walk out when Russian negotiators tried to removea reference to pre-conflict positions.
"At that moment, Sarkozy got up and said 'We're going. Thisis not negotiable," the official said. The row blew over whenMedvedev, who had left the room, returned and appealed forcalm, the official said.
A Kremlin source said the general atmosphere was positiveand denied there was "anything specifically tense about them."
The final agreement included a commitment to holdinternational talks on the Georgian crisis in Geneva on October15.
Lavrov said Russia would demand South Ossetia and Abkhaziahave a "full place at the table for those discussions".
