Russian convoys were seen rolling out of some captured positions in Georgia on Friday in what Moscow said was a full withdrawal.

Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said his forces completed a pullback to the disputed separatist region of South Ossetia by late evening, a claim that could not be independently verified.

Russian soldiers sit atop an armoured personnel carrier in central Georgia on Friday as a convoy passes a checkpoint, moving north in the direction of South Ossetia. (Sergei Grits/Associated Press)It was the latest in a confusing series of Russia pronouncements about leaving Georgia. In Washington, officials said they saw evidence of troop movements but not a major pullout.

In western Georgia, a column of 83 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and trucks hauling artillery moved away from the Senaki military base Friday afternoon toward the border of the country's other breakaway region, Abkhazia, the Associated Press reported.

In central Georgia, the CBC's Mike Hornbook saw Georgian forces preparing to re-enter places recently held by the Russians along a highway leading north and west of the capital, Tbilisi.

(CBC) "On the way here, we passed through what was the most easterly Russian checkpoint, and I can say now that the checkpoint doesn't exist any more," Hornbrook said.

"They have taken it out. They've moved on."

That checkpoint, at a crossroads village called Igoeti, had been the Russian position closest to the capital.

"A little bit farther down the highway, I'm now at an intersection where Georgian police, security forces and soldiers are assembling," Hornbrook said.

"What they're doing here is waiting till the Russians are thoroughly out of the area, and then they will move in and start taking control of the area. They don't want to move in earlier, they tell me, because they don't want to tangle with the Russians."

The Georgians are also worried about unexploded bomblets and other risks, he said.

"They say they're going to cautiously move into these areas before they allow people to start returning."

Farther along the same highway, about 40 Russian military vehicles were seen leaving the strategic city of Gori, heading toward nearby South Ossetia, AP reported.

South Ossetia is the Russian-dominated region where the lopsided battle between Russian and Georgian forces began two weeks ago. Like Abkhazia, it was formally part of Georgia but is now likely be proclaimed independent or absorbed by Russia.

"We are seeing the pullback of Russian troops" from Gori, Georgian security council chief Alexander Lomaia confirmed Friday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had promised to have his troops out of Georgia by Friday, but a top Russian general later amended that prediction, saying it could take at least 10 days before the bulk of Russian troops and hardware could be withdrawn.

Serdyukov seemed to say Medvedev's deadline had been met, at least to the point of getting Russian troops out of undisputed Georgian territory.

Pentagon sees no big Russian withdrawal

The claim was greeted skeptically in Washington. A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said there was no clear evidence of a major Russian pullout.

"There has been some movement of forces, but whether or not that is an indication of a withdrawal or just a repositioning of forces is a bit difficult to determine at this point. But those movements remain minor," he said.

Under a peace deal, Russian forces are to pull back to positions they held before intense fighting broke out Aug. 7 in South Ossetia.

But Russia said it will keep troops in South Ossetia and in a buffer zone in Georgia proper along the border of the separatist region. The United States, among other countries, disputes Russia's right to do that.

The short but intense war on Russia's southern border has deeply strained relations between Russia and the West. Russia has frozen its military co-operation with NATO, Moscow's Cold War-era foe. Georgia has wanted to join NATO, a move that angered Russia.

In Poti, Russian intentions are unclear

Outside Georgia's main Black Sea port, Poti, Russian troops were seen digging large trenches Friday morning near a bridge that provides the only access to the city, AP said.

Five trucks, several armored personnel carriers and a helicopter were parked nearby, and another Russian position was seen in a wooded area outside the city. It was not immediately clear whether those troops remained there later in the day.

Poti is far from any zone in which Russian troops would be allowed to be under the ceasefire.

In South Ossetia, whose capital, Tskhinvali, suffered the most intense fighting, Russian troops were clearly establishing a long-term presence, erecting 18 peacekeeping posts in a so-called security zone around the border of the province, AP said.

The heavily armed soldiers that Russia calls peacekeepers have been working closely with regular Russian troops and their separatist allies against Georgian forces.

In an interview with AP, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity signaled that ethnic Georgians will not be allowed to return to the region, charging that ethnic Ossetians were not allowed to return to Georgia after a previous conflict.

Homes burned, looted in South Ossetia

The deserted ethnic Georgian villages around Tskhinvali have been burned and looted many days after any fighting ended.

In the village of Achabeti, an AP reporter saw Ossetians remove chairs, window frames and whatever else they could carry from abandoned Georgian houses. Many houses stood smoldering in the August heat and another building went up in flames. An excavator was dismantling a destroyed house.

The United Nations estimates that 158,000 people have fled their homes because of the fighting.

With files from the Associated Press