AS WESTERN powers appealed to Russia for an immediate ceasefire, French president Nicolas Sarkozy prepared to fly to Georgia and Russia today on a peace mission, following a round of shuttle diplomacy by his foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner.
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili said he had agreed to a plan proposed by Mr Kouchner under which hostilities would end, a mixed peacekeeping force would be deployed, and troops would return to pre-conflict positions.
Mr Kouchner was last night heading for Moscow with his proposals, but the plan was initially rejected by the Russians, who insisted Georgia was continuing military activities inside South Ossetia.
The US state department said foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations supported international mediation to end the crisis. They urged Russia to respect Georgia's territorial integrity. But Moscow was in no mood to compromise. "The foreign ministry has to state that the US department of state is ill-informed. Georgia has not stopped attacks against civilian and Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia," a Russian foreign ministry spokesman responded.
Russian defence ministry officials said Georgia was heavily shelling South Ossetia despite announcing a ceasefire.
Prime minister Vladimir Putin, who has taken a leading role in the crisis, attacked the US for helping Georgia fly home troops from Iraq and said the West was mistaking the aggressors for victims in the conflict. Mr Putin mocked the support given by the West to Mr Saakashvili, comparing him to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"They [ the Americans] of course had to hang Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shia villages," Mr Putin said.
"But the current Georgian rulers - who in one hour simply wiped 10 Ossetian villages from the face of the earth, the Georgian rulers which used tanks to run over children and the elderly, which threw civilians into cellars and burnt them - they [ Georgian leaders] are players that have to be protected."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin, said he was "gravely concerned" about the violence. "Ireland fully supports Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity. I welcome the Georgian offer of a ceasefire and call on all parties to immediately accept this," he said.
"Every effort must be made to keep the situation from escalating further. In this regard, the EU is working hard to find a solution to the current crisis."
Ireland will be represented at an emergency EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today at which Mr Kouchner will report on his visit to Tbilisi.
The European Commission called on Russia to halt military activity on Georgian territory and Nato's secretary general accused Moscow of using excessive force. Russia's Nato ambassador, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russia was seeking an emergency meeting with Nato.
Nato angered Moscow by declaring in April that Georgia, a former part of the Soviet Union, would one day be a member.
Italy, whose prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is a close ally of Mr Putin, sides with Russia, foreign minister Franco Frattini told La Stampa.
"We cannot create an anti-Russia coalition in Europe, and on this point we are close to Putin's position," he said.
- (Reuters)