BAZALETI (Georgia) - EUROPEAN Union observers began deploying in Georgia on Wednesday to monitor a ceasefire and oversee a Russian troop pull-back after the August war in the Caucasus state, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

Four armoured vehicles, each carrying two monitors and marked with EU flags, left at about 0500 GMT (1pm Singapore time) from a field office in Bazaleti, near the Georgian capital Tbilisi, to begin patrols.

Six more vehicles, most carrying French gendarmes, also left to patrol near the separatist region of South ssetia from the city of Gori, another AFP correspondent reported.

Monitoring teams also began patrolling in the western cities of Poti and Zugdidi near another breakaway region, Abkhazia, a spokesman for the EU mission said.

The European Union Monitoring Mission - comprising at least 200 people - aims to stabilise the region and ensure compliance by Georgia and Russia with an EU-brokered peace plan.

Many of the EU observers have a police or military background. They include a large contingent of French gendarmes, while others are experts in human rights and judicial issues.

All will be unarmed, although they will have protective equipment including armoured cars.

On a visit to Tbilisi on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the bloc expects Russia to respect the peace plan and pull back its troops by an October 10 deadline.

'I am optimistic that all the parties will comply, as we have done, to the terms of the agreement,' Mr Solana said.

'The objective of this mission is to allow Russian forces to withdraw,' he said.

Moscow said on Tuesday that the EU monitors would not immediately enter a Russian-controlled 'buffer zone' around South Ossetia when the mission begins.

The monitors would patrol 'up to the southern limit of the security zone' under an EU-Russia deal reached on Tuesday, the Interfax news agency quoted Vitaly Manushko, spokesman for Russian forces in South Ossetia, as saying.

Mr Solana said the EU anticipates a 'phase-by phase' deployment of the monitors.

Months of mounting tensions erupted into full-scale hostilities between Georgia and Russia in early August over the Moscow-backed rebel province of South Ossetia.

Moscow said it was protecting Russian citizens in the region from Georgian aggression, but Tbilisi accused Moscow of provoking the conflict in order to cement its control over the region and destabilise pro-Western Georgia.

Drawing widespread international condemnation, Moscow subsequently recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Under the peace plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the EU's behalf, Russia is due to draw back its troops from 'buffer zones' around the rebel regions into the regions themselves by October 10. -- AFP