ROME —  Vice President Dick Cheney insisted Tuesday that Georgia's territorial integrity must be respected, after Russia announced it would keep a military presence in two Georgian breakaway provinces and moved to establish diplomatic ties with them.

Cheney said the international community was united in condemning Russia's military action in Georgia and "its unilateral efforts to alter by force of arms Georgia's internationally recognized boundaries."

"The international community supports the independence and territorial integrity of Georgia and calls for the peaceful resolution of this dispute based on good-faith discussions among the parties," Cheney said, after holding talks with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.

Russia and Georgia fought for five days last month over the separatist region of South Ossetia. Moscow has since recognized South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

On Tuesday, Russia signed a deal to establish diplomatic relations with the two separatist regions and said it would keep thousands of troops in the regions to prevent Georgian attempts to regain control of them.

Moscow has also promised to pull out forces in areas surrounding South Ossetia and Abkhazia after European Union monitors are deployed in coming weeks.

Cheney's visit to Italy is part of a tour that also took him to Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, three ex-Soviet republics. The vice president reaffirmed U.S. support for efforts by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.

On Tuesday he said the Russian Western border had never been safer, thanks to the "success across Europe in building prosperous democracies."

Over the weekend, addressing a conference in northern Italy, Cheney issued a strong rebuke of Russian policies in Georgia and elsewhere.

Berlusconi, a staunch U.S. ally and personal friend of both President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has adopted a softer stance on Russia than America and some European countries.

Rome has repeatedly warned against isolating Moscow, saying Russia's interests need to be anchored to the West.

Berlusconi said Tuesday that he had worked "to prevent what happened in Georgia and South Ossetia from becoming, rather than an isolated incident, a detonator that could push history back years to the Cold War" era.

During the talks between Berlusconi and Cheney on Tuesday, Cheney also spoke of Iran's nuclear ambitions, reiterating the U.S. position that Tehran "must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons" and should comply with U.N. resolutions requiring it to stop uranium enrichment.

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