Russian President Medvedev signs cease-fire plan to end military action on Georgia,

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the European Union-brokered peace plan already inked by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that halted Russia's armed five-day incursion into its neighbor's territory.

``At the Security Council meeting, the situation around the South Ossetian and Abkhazian conflict was reviewed and the president informed the council that he had signed the six-point peace agreement,'' Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, told reporters in Sochi today.

The signature followed U.S. and German statements urging Russian withdrawal after the five days of fighting between the two countries which ended Aug. 12. ``With the signature of the Georgian president on this cease-fire accord, all Russian troops and any irregular and paramilitary forces that entered with them must leave immediately,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi yesterday.