"NATO's position on the Russian bases has not changed and will not change: these bases should go," he told reporters at the Alliance's headquarters. "It is clear that the end state as soon as possible is that the bases should go."

Russia's continued military presence in Georgia 14 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to which Georgia once belonged, has become a major point of dispute between the two countries and between Russia and the West.

The Russian foreign ministry says negotiations on the withdrawal of two military bases will resume next week in Tbilisi, and the speaker of Georgia's parliament, Nino Burjanadze, has said a deal is close.

"We are very encouraged by the support we got in our negotiations for the withdrawal of the Russian bases," Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told a press conference with de Hoop Scheffer.

However she refused to venture on when a deal might be reached. "I won't go into dates ... that's one of the main issues and it is not resolved," she said.

The two bases are located near Georgia's southwest port of Batumi on the Black Sea and near the southern town of Akhalkalaki.

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