Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. Navy destroyer carrying humanitarian aid arrived in a Georgian port as the European Union stepped up diplomatic pressure on Russia by calling a summit to discuss future relations.

The USS McFaul docked at the Black Sea port of Batumi yesterday with $13 million of supplies including bottled water, sleeping bags and baby food, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Stephen Guice. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the cease- fire in Georgia, called an EU summit for Sept. 1.

Russian officials say they have fulfilled the terms of the cease-fire by withdrawing most troops while stationing soldiers in security zones abutting the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two regions that broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s. Sarkozy and U.S. President George W. Bush have insisted on a complete withdrawal of troops that entered Georgia after Aug. 6.

``The Russians are keeping all their previous illegal checkpoints,'' Georgian National Security Council secretary Alexander Lomaia told Agence France-Presse yesterday.

The continued presence of Russian troops was highlighted by an explosion that occurred when a Georgian train carrying oil products hit a suspected Russian mine. The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. yesterday about 7 kilometers from the city of Gori, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said, adding that there were no injuries.

Troops Fired

At a checkpoint near the city of Khobi yesterday, Russian troops fired into the air to drive back Georgian protesters holding flags and chanting ``Russians, go home,'' Utiashvili said by mobile phone, adding that in this incident also no one was injured.

Hundreds of Georgians gathered two days ago at the Black Sea port of Poti to protest the Russian checkpoints set up by troops manning armored personnel carriers.

Guram Gakhua, a Georgian resident of Poti, expressed dismay at the Russian checkpoints.

``I can't believe this is happening, they have expanded control and now they want to control Georgia,'' Gakhua said. ``This checkpoint was never here before.''

Russian soldiers detained an APTN crew filming in Poti yesterday, damaging their equipment before handing them to Georgian police, producer Sofia Megrelidze said by telephone.

Three Georgian ships at Poti were destroyed by the Russian military during the conflict, according to the port's Georgia border police. The wreckage of one navy ship and a police vessel was seen by a Bloomberg reporter in Poti.

Quantity of Aid

The U.S. had planned to send the McFaul to Poti, although the port is ``not fully operational to receive such a quantity of aid or assist the ship of such size,'' said U.S. Embassy spokesman Guice. ``Besides, Russian troops are still there.''

Instead, the McFaul dropped anchor off Batumi, 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the south of Poti. It is the first of three U.S. Navy vessels scheduled to bring aid to the estimated 10,000 people displaced by the conflict.

In another sign of U.S. support for Georgia, Republican Senator for Indiana Richard Lugar met with the nation's leaders in Tbilisi. He urged European leaders to cut their dependence on Russian energy imports.

``It is imperative that the EU minimize energy dependency upon Russian gas and oil resources, even at this point, it is important for the United States to maintain a dialogue on the energy resources,'' he said.

NATO Membership

Both Georgia and Ukraine have been promised eventual membership in NATO, which has frozen contacts with Russia to protest its Georgian incursion. Georgia is considered an important strategic ally to the West in part because of its role in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia.

Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters in Moscow Aug. 23 that the withdrawal of Russian troops had met the truce conditions brokered by Sarkozy.

Nogovitsyn also said about 2,100 civilians had died during the conflict in South Ossetia. There has been no independent confirmation of casualties.

Bush and Sarkozy spoke by telephone Aug. 22 and urged Russia to ``continue and complete'' the troop withdrawal, Sarkozy's office said. Sarkozy said in a statement he had agreed in a phone call with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on replacing Russian patrols in the buffer zone outside South Ossetia with international monitors.

The Kremlin, referring to the same conversation, said in a statement read over the phone that there had been ``no discussion'' of replacing Russian peacekeepers.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was due to send 20 armed observers and seven armored personnel carriers in the conflict zone over the weekend, said its chairman, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb.

To contact the reporters on this story: Helena Bedwell in Poti, Georgia, via hbedwell@bloomberg.net; Torrey Clark in Moscow at tclark8@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 24, 2008 18:24 EDT