MOSCOW, July 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia has begun fulfilling an agreement to withdraw its military bases from Georgia, a Georgian official said on Tuesday.

    "The Russian party has already begun implementing the agreementon the bases' withdrawal," said Konstantin Gabashvili, head of the Georgian parliamentary foreign relations committee, in an interview with the Interfax news agency.

    Experts are discussing "purely technical issues related to the transportation of Russian military hardware, ways to protect it onthe territory of Georgia, and a number of other details," he said.

    "These technical issues cannot change any previously achieved agreements dealing with the deadline for and stages of the withdrawal from the bases from Akhalkalaki and Batumi," the Georgian official stressed.

    But Vladimir Kuparadze, deputy commander of the Russian forces in Transcaucasia, was critical of the Georgian side for "artificially delaying the process of withdrawal from the bases."

    Kuparadze said he had information that the Georgian Foreign Ministry was denying entry visas to Russian servicemen.

    "My impression is that the Georgian party is creating artificial obstacles to subsequently accuse the Russian party of failing to put the base withdrawal agreement into effect," he said.

    The withdrawal of Russian bases from Georgia has been one of the thorny issues irritating Georgian-Russian relations.

    Russia used to have four military bases in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Withtwo of the four bases already closed, the two countries are lockedin a bitter dispute over a timetable for pulling out of the remaining two.

    After protracted negotiations, on May 30 in Moscow the two sides at last reached an agreement to move out of the bases by 2008. Enditem