Russian troops leave NATO ally

TBILISI, Georgia, May 31 (UPI) -- Russian forces are continuing their withdrawal from the territory of a former Soviet republic seeking NATO membership.

The Georgian Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that the fifth in a series of Russian military convoys had departed from a Russian military base in Georgia under an agreement reached in 2006 on the closing of Russian military bases, according to an RIA Novosti report.

"The truck convoy crossed the Georgian border mid-afternoon Moscow time and headed to the Russian military base in Gyumri in Armenia," a Georgian official said, according to the report.

RIA Novosti said the Russian forces left their base at Akhalkalaki in an area with an ethnic majority Armenian population. The base will be emptied by the beginning of 2007, and another Russian base in the Black Sea port of Batumi will be evacuated by two years after that, RIA Novosti said.

Moscow plans to send five more truck convoys and 10 trains to complete the evacuation of troops and equipment from the Akhalkalaki base by the end of December, it said.

As part of the phased evacuation plan, Russia completed the evacuation of all its troops from their base in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in December 2006. Only 13 Russian soldiers will remain from the Tbilisi base to work on the next stages of the evacuation.

Relations between Russia and the government of President Mikhail Saakashvili remain tense. Georgian leaders are building their ties to NATO and hope to eventually join the U.S.-led alliance.