U.S. flies aid into Georgia and backs ceasefire
U.S. military planes began delivering aid to Georgia as Washington stepped up support for a shaky ceasefire with Russian troops around the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Proposed U.S. mortgage aid would do harm -PaulsonU.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was set to hold talks in Tbilisi on Thursday after discussions in France with President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday. Her trip comes six days into a conflict that has shifted from artillery, tank and gun battles at the weekend to increasingly sharp diplomatic and political exchanges out of Washington, Moscow and Tbilisi.
U.S. President George Bush, flanked by Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates in the Rose Garden, demanded Moscow end the crisis, abide by an agreed ceasefire and withdraw Russian troops sent into Georgia after fighting began last Thursday.
"The United States of America stands with the democratically-elected government of Georgia. We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," Bush told reporters at the White House.
Moscow has denied violating a ceasefire and rejected claims its troops and armour had advanced on Tbilisi or looted the key town of Gori, 60km (35 miles) west of the capital and south across the Kura river from South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali.
Speaking in Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, told by Rice that Russian servicemen were failing to prevent looting by irregular militias in Gori, said such actions would not be tolerated.
"I said from the very beginning that if any such facts prove true, we will react in the most serious way...The peaceful population should be protected. We are investigating all these reports and will not allow any such actions," Lavrov said.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based organisation with staff in Georgia, said its onsite researchers had witnessed looting of ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia, the rebel province at the heart of the current conflict.
AIRLIFT AID
Lavrov said the United States needed to choose between partnership with Moscow or the Georgian leadership, which he characterised as a "virtual project" of the Bush administration.
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