French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner flew to Tbilisi today on an EU mission to mediate an end to the conflict in Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region, which was under Russian control after Georgia forces retreated.
Russian news agencies reported that French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country is the current EU president, would this week travel to Russia as part of international efforts to end the fighting.
"The president believes that there now exists a real chance of quickly finding a way out of the crisis," following the retreat of Georgian forces from the region, Mr Sarkozy's office said in a statement.
Russian news agencies quoted Russian president Dmitry Medvedev as telling the French leader in a telephone conversation that Tbilisi should immediately sign a formal pledge not to attack South Ossetia.
Mr Sarkozy, who also spoke to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili and other world leaders today, believed a pledge not to engage in violence in the future would help facilitate a solution in the short term, the presidency statement said. It would also help make a ceasefire sustainable, it added.
Mr Kouchner's arrival made him the first senior international figure to fly to the Georgian capital since the three-day conflict in breakaway South Ossetia erupted. He went straight to a meeting with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Hours before his arrival, a bomb dropped by a Russian jet exploded near the runway of Tbilisi international airport, in an air strike the interior ministry said appeared to be aimed at the nearby military and aviation construction plant.
Russia poured troops and tanks across its southern border into Georgia and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted on Thursday evening to retake South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.
Mr Kouchner travels to Moscow tomorrow for talks with Russian leaders, the French foreign ministry said.
"We don't want the conflict to spread in a region which is extremely volatile and dangerous," he told French radio ahead of his departure.
A French plan to end the conflict calls for an immediate end to hostilities, the withdrawal of forces to positions held before August 6th plus some form of international presence, and the respect of Georgian territorial integrity.
Mr Kouchner would offer French and EU humanitarian aid during his visit and a French plane would be ready to leave for Tbilisi from tomorrow, the French foreign ministry said.
The French minister would report on his trip to EU foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday called to discuss the South Ossetia crisis, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying Russia's navy had sunk a Georgian boat carrying missile launchers after a skirmish at sea.
Georgian boats had made two attempts to attack Russian ships which "returned fire, as a result of which one of the Georgian boats launching the attack sank", agencies quoted the ministry as saying.
The reports gave no indication which ships were involved in the incident or where it took place. The navy earlier said Russian warships originally said to be near Georgian waters had put into Novorossiisk, a Russian Black Sea port to the north.
Russian planes have carried out raids against mainly military targets in Georgia this week. An Interior Ministry spokesman said today's air strike at the civilian airport in Tbilisi appeared to have been aimed at the nearby military airport and an aviation construction plant.
"It turns out they hit both military and civilian airports," ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.
The air strike occurred hours after Georgia said it had pulled out of Tskhinvali, capital of breakaway South Ossetia, where Georgian and Russian forces have been engaged in heavy fighting for three days.
The military airport was also struck early today.
In northern Georgia, a Reuters Television crew reported hearing 15 loud explosions near Tskhinvali. Georgia said earlier it had ceased all military activity.
Georgian officials have given conflicting information on whether Georgia has withdrawn its forces from South Ossetia completely or pulled them back to their previous positions in Georgian-populated villages south and west of Tskhinvali.
Georgia submitted a note to the Russian ambassador today saying it had ceased fire in South Ossetia and called for talks about a full ceasefire agreement and an end to hostilities.
The note said all Georgian troops had been withdrawn from the conflict zone.
However, Russian foreign ministry sources said there were indications that exchanges of fire were continuing and the Georgian forces had not been fully withdrawn from the conflict zone.
Meanwhile, the United States was expected to offer a UN Security Council resolution today condemning the Russian military "assault" against Georgia as unacceptable.
The spokesman for the US delegation at the United Nations, Richard Grenell, said: "We will offer a resolution today that makes clear that the Russian actions in Georgia are unacceptable to the international community and we condemn this military assault."
Russia, which is a permanent veto-wielding member of the council and can single-handedly block any US resolution, had no immediate response to the announcement.
"We'll see what's in there, then we'll know what to do," Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
In Georgia, Russian troops took the capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia earlier today after a three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated.
The United States earlier warned Moscow that any further military escalation in Georgia could have a "significant, long-term impact" on relations. It called on Russia and Georgia to end hostilities and return to their pre-conflict positions.
Georgia withdrew its forces from the region this morning after three days of fighting but Russia sent more troops into the enclave, the Georgian government said. The Russian army said Georgian forces were still in South Osettia.
In a sign that the conflict might spread, the head of Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia, said he had sent 1,000 troops to a disputed area and mobilised reservists.
Tbilisi has accused Moscow of pursuing a policy of "annihilation" as it bombed cities across the country while the Russians hav accused the Georgians of genocide. The two armies exchanged artillery fire overnight while Russian planes bombed the runway of a military airfield near Tbilisi international airport according to one Georgian official.
US president George W Bush led a chorus of international calls to end to the bombardment amid fears the conflict might spread to other parts of the volatile Caucasus region.
Russian officials said the death toll stood at 2,000. Georgia said on Friday that it had lost up to 300 people killed, mainly civilians.
Russia bombed a military airfield outside the Georgian capital early this morning and Tbilisi said the Russians were also massing troops in Abkhazia on the Black Sea, another rebel region that broke with Tbilisi in the early 1990s after a war.
Russian warships had arrived at Georgia's Black Sea coast, RIA news agency quoted a Russian navy source as saying.
Interfax said the naval force would stop weapons landing by sea. But RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a defence source as saying Russia had no plans to mount a blockade. "A naval blockade means war with Georgia," the source told RIA. "We are not at war with Georgia."
A Georgian ceasefire offer yesterday went unheeded by Moscow, which demanded a complete pullback to positions before fighting began. Shortly before the Georgian ceasefire announcement, shelling could still be heard.
Russia was unbowed by Western criticism of its offensive. "Russia's actions in South Ossetia are totally legitimate," Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said, visiting an adjacent region of Russia to which thousands of refugees have fled.
Mr Putin said Georgia's bid to join the Western alliance Nato - anathema to Moscow - was part of the problem.
Russia is the main backer of South Ossetian separatists and the majority of the population, ethnically distinct from Georgians, have been given Russian passports since the enclave broke with Tbilisi in the early 1990s.