PICTURED: Georgia mourns their dead as the Russian tanks rumble on

Russian soldiers were still manning checkpoints in Georgia and patrolling a Black Sea port even after Moscow pulled back much of the force it deployed three weeks ago to crush Georgia's attempt to take back separatist province South Ossetia.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown by telephone on Saturday ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Monday.

Loved ones lost: Relatives mourn Georgian officer Shalva Dolidze at a funeral ceremony in Tbilisi, Georgia on Saturday

The EU leaders are to debate the bloc's response to Russia's military intervention and its decision to recognise Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions as independent states.

Russia has ignored calls by the United States and European powers to withdraw from Georgia, including troops deployed in a 'buffer zone' bordering South Ossetia and Abkhazia that Moscow says are needed to prevent further attacks by Georgia.

The governor of Gori, a Georgian city occupied by Russian forces during the brief conflict, said Russian soldiers still occupied nearby Georgian villages and were preventing residents from returning home.

'The Russians have checkpoints and we still cannot bring these people back home. The threat of paramilitary, irregulars, looting and robbing is still very high,' Governor Lado Vardzelashvili said.

'Apparently the Russian military are not willing to prevent these kinds of cases.'

Human impact: Anastasia Khaikashvili holds a portrait of her missing son Shmagi at a funeral ceremony of unknown Georgian soldiers

Vardzelashvili said 28,000 people from villages in the Gori region still could not go home. The number could not be independently verified but Human Rights Watch has urged Russia to investigate reports of burning and looting of Georgian villages by Ossetian militias.

A member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, met Vardzelashvili in Gori's town hall and spoke to residents who said they were unable return to their homes.

Two U.S. navy ships vessels have already delivered aid to Georgian ports and a third, the navy command ship USS Mount Whitney, is en route with more.

Russia views with suspicion the use of U.S. warships to deliver aid to its Georgia and says it is worried by the build-up of alliance navy ships in the Black Sea, where the Russian navy has traditionally been dominant.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday U.S. military advisers were involved in the conflict and accused the White House of provoking the crisis to help Republicans win the November U.S. presidential election.

Tanks a lot: Russian military drive through Tskhinvali, the regional capital South Ossetia, and moving to the Russian border on Saturday

'In a significant way, the crisis was provoked, including by our American friends in the course of the election struggle,' Putin said in an interview with German television ARD.

A senior U.S. diplomat in the region has said Washington pleaded with Tbilisi to refrain from attacking the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and stay out of the conflict.

Diplomats have said EU nations were reluctant to impose sanctions and had received signals from the Kremlin that it would retaliate.

The two sides on Friday pulled back from confrontation, Moscow urging the EU not to rush into punitive action and France saying now was not the time for sanctions.

Brown called the Russian president to discuss Georgia. Medvedev defended his recognition of the rebel Georgian regions and insisted Moscow was complying with the ceasefire agreement, the Kremlin said.

A British spokesman said: 'We are not going to be drawn on the details of that conversation. The next step will be the European Council meeting on Monday.'

Two neighbours survey the rubble of their destroyed house in Tskhinvali, regional capital of Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia, on Saturday

German and Russian foreign ministers also discussed Georgia, and agreed on the need to prevent the crisis being used to 'escalate tensions in Europe through speculation over non-existent threats to other former Soviet republics,' the Interfax news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

That was a reference to comments last week by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said Russia might have objectives beyond Georgia, 'in particular the Crimea, Ukraine and Moldova.'