Russian tanks and troops swept along main highways out of Georgia on Friday, abandoning the main military camp and checkpoints outside Gori. On Friday night Russia declared its withdrawal complete and said it was in full compliance with a cease-fire agreement, but the United States and France immediately voiced strong objections, saying Russia had not gone far enough.

"Russia is not in compliance and Russia needs to come into compliance now," Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman, told reporters in after President Bush spoke by telephone form his ranch in Crawford, Tex., with and the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, who helped negotiate the agreement.

Russian units said they had orders only to fall back as far as South Ossetia and some platoons were still dug in near roads outside Gori, while Russian troops bearing new peacekeeping badges dominated the main east-west highway, a key trading artery. A senior Russian official said Russian military checkpoints ringing South Ossetia would be permanent.

While Russia seemed to show good faith in pulling back from Georgian territory as it defines it and quitting the main cities it had occupied, the latest movements mean Georgia and the West will likely face a long-term Russian presence that includes the two disputed enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and control of the country's main roads.

Russia may still use its hold on the main transport and trading routes to keep a headlock on the whole country, possibly applying economic and military pressure toward its strategic aims in the region and an ultimate goal of unseating Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

In the west of the country, Russian forces pulled out of the center of Zugdidi, leaving the regional administration building, the presidential residence and other sites that they had occupied since Aug. 11.

On Friday, columns of Russian troop transports headed across the Inguri River into Russian-controlled territory in Abkhazia, Kiza Bartsuani, the deputy police chief of the Zugdidi region said by telephone. By evening, Russian troops had left a bridge into Gori, and traffic was beginning to flow on the road for the first time in weeks.

But Russian troops continued to hold the Georgian military base in Senaki, though they freed 10 of 21 Georgian soldiers held there since Aug. 19, a Georgian defense ministry spokeswoman said. And Russian soldiers continued to patrol the strategically important port city of Poti on the Black Sea.

Just west of Gori, near the river Ptsa, a unit of 20 to 25 soldiers occupied trenches about one mile north of the main road.

The deputy head of the Russian general staff, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said at a news briefing in Moscow that the pullout would be completed on schedule. The pullback of the Russian forces "is being carried out punctually and we do not intend to change it in the direction of extending the timetable," he said, according to Reuters.

Georgia's national security adviser, Alexander Lomaia, confirmed in a telephone interview from Gori that Russian troops were leaving the city, and appeared also to be vacating at least some positions on the strategically important main east west highway.

He said he had spoken with a Russian general who said the highway would be opened by Friday evening.

"We believe that by the end of today, there will be no more Russian troops in close vicinity of the motorway," he said. "We see now they are pulling out from the city of Gori, and they seemingly are de-blocking the main motorway."

But on the highway further west traffic was being controlled at successive checkpoints by Russian troops wearing badges bearing the title, "Peacemaking Forces of the Georgia-Ossetia Conflict Zone."

It remains unclear how many troops Russia will leave in and around the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and under what guise. Russia's interpretation of the French-brokered cease-fire allows it to pursue ongoing security operations within a few miles of the borders of the territories. Russia also claims that it is authorized to keep its troops on at least parts of the main highway.

In this, Russia is relying on a 1999 document written by the Joint Control Commission, an international body that monitored tensions in South Ossetia, the breakaway enclave over which hostilities between Russia and Georgia flared this month.

The document gives peacekeepers access to a "security corridor" that extends about five miles in each direction from South Ossetia's perimeter.

Under that document, the corridor reaches into Georgian-held territory, including portions of the country's main east-west highway.

This 1999 agreement was a four-way deal between the separatist region of South Ossetia, the Russian province of North Ossetia, and the governments of Georgia and Russia, mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It remains unclear, however, whether the 1999 agreement is binding on Georgia, as Georgia pulled out of the four-way peace talks in March.

Also, the agreement allows Russian troops to operate as peacekeepers under the auspices of the Commonwealth of Independent States. But Mr. Saakashvili announced last week he would withdraw from this organization.

In South Ossetia, the separatist region was about 50 percent of the territory of the former Autonomous District of South Ossetia so advancing to these borders is a significant gain in territory.

Russia has now released maps of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia showing the new line where it intends to build observation posts or checkpoints.