Russian UN envoy says troops to withdraw Friday

United Nations: Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said that troops will be moving out of Georgia on Friday night.

"The idea is, by tomorrow night, all those forces ... will move to within that perimeter, the peacekeeping perimeter," Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday.

The deputy chief of staff of Russia's armed forces also laid out a similar timeline.

However, General Vladimir Boldyrev said that it will take 10 days before troops withdraw, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

Washington has demanded that Russia pull out its troops from Georgia immediately.

Russia has defied Western warnings and has temporarily suspended cooperation with Nato over the Georgia conflict.

Russia is holding a meeting on Friday to make a formal decision on the issue.