There is growing concern among European Union governments that they will be unable to persuade Russia to withdraw its forces from a “buffer zone” in Georgia, which they occupied during their military victory last month.

The concern emerged on Friday at an informal two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in the French city of Avignon. Leaders of the 27-nation EU last Monday urged Russia to withdraw its soldiers to positions held before August 7, when Georgia began a military operation to recapture the pro-Russian separatist enclave of South Ossetia.