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Tension remain high in Georgia this evening, with Russian troops and armour moving around three towns inside the country and ignoring demands by Washington that Moscow respect its territorial integrity.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to ask Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili tomorrow to sign a French-negotiated ceasefire that contains some apparent concessions to Moscow but would lead to the withdrawal of Russian forces, according to officials.

The six-point ceasefire Rice will discuss with Mr Saakashvili provides for the withdrawal of all Russian forces, leaving behind only the peacekeeping troops who were in place in South Ossetia and Abkhazia before the start of the crisis, a senior US official said.

It would give the Russian peacekeepers a new but limited authority to patrol certain areas of Georgia until third-party peacekeepers and observers arrive. 

Meanwhile, Moscow also clashed with Georgia's ally Ukraine today over the movements of Russia's Black Sea fleet after Ukraine's president decreed Russian warships obtain permission before entering or leaving their base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about the humanitarian situation, lawlessness and lack of access for aid workers in war-torn parts of Georgia.

"I am extremely concerned by the humanitarian impact of the recent conflict on the civilian population in Georgia, which has suffered loss of life and injury, significant damage to property and infrastructure."

"Large parts of the conflict-affected area, particularly South Ossetia and the Gori region, remain for the most part inaccessible to humanitarian organizations due to ongoing insecurity, lawlessness and other constraints," he said. 

The United States does not want a return of Cold War relations with Russia following Moscow's military action in Georgia, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said this afternoon. 

"That certainly is not our desire," Mr Gates told reporters. "We have been pretty restrained in this."

Mr Gates was responding to questions about the future of US-Russia relations after Moscow sent troops into Georgia and the United States dispatched military aircraft to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgians.

Mr Gates said the Russian military appeared to be pulling its forces in Georgia back toward the separatist Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 

 arlier, US 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. 

Russia said today it will soon pull out from Gori, a town 60km east of the capital Tbilisi, just outside South Ossetia and which contols the key road between eastern and western Georgia.