Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has signed a ceasefire agreement ending hostilities with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, it was confirmed this evening.
The agreement formally ends hostilities between the two countries as the US calls on Russia to withdraw its tanks from Georgian territory.
Speaking at a press conference after six hours of talks with visting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Mr Saakashvili confirmed the ceasefire.
"Today I signed the ceasefire agreement," he said.
Mr Saakashvili blamed the West for failing to react strongly enough to previous Russian military moves and for failing to grant his Caucasus country membership of NATO.
"We are today looking evil directly in the eye." The Georgian leader said Georgia would never ever reconcile itself to any occupation of its territory by Russia.
Mr Saakashvili made his comments during a press conference following six hours of talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Ms Rice demanded Russia withdraw all of its troops from Georgia.
"Our most urgent task today is the immediate and orderly withdrawal of Russian armed forces and the return of those forces to Russia," Ms Rice told reporters.
"Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said. "This is no longer 1968."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after Georgia signed the ceasefire agreement today and said Mr Medvedev had agreed to sign the accord and withdraw Russian troops.
A statement issued by Mr Sarkozy's office said: "(Mr Medvedev) confirmed to him that he would also sign the accord and that Russia would scrupulously respect the engagements in the accord, notably those concerning the withdrawal of Russian forces."
The statement gave no indication of when Medvedev might sign the agreement.
Earlier, US president George W. Bush today accused Russia of "bullying" and damaging its international standing by sending its military into Georgia as diplomatic efforts continue to secure a French-brokered peace deal.
But Mr Bush, delivering a statement from the White House, also said the United States wanted to have good ties with Russia and not revert to Cold War-era relationships.
"A contentious relationship with Russia is not in America's interest and a contentious relationship with America is not in Russia's interest," Mr Bush said before departing for Texas for a holiday. "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
Mr Bush said he will receive briefings on the situation in Georgia from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who is in Tbilisi in hopes of easing tensions between Russia and Georgia.
However, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at virtually the same time, said the separatist Georgian regions at the center of the conflict appear destined for independence.
"After what happened, it's unlikely Ossetians and Abkhazians will ever be able to live together with Georgia in one state," he said in a joint news conference in the Russian resort of Sochi with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili earlier appealed to the world to stop what he termed Russia's "barbaric, inhuman, treacherous" occupation. Last week, Russia dispatched troops into Georgia after Tbilisi sent its troops into South Ossetia to try to take back control over the province, which split away from Georgia in a war in the 1990s. Moscow
Amid reports of looting by militias, Mr Saakashvili accused Russian troops of "ethnically cleansing" the rebel areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He said Moscow wanted to force Georgia into a humiliation like the one suffered by Czechoslovakia at the hands of the Nazis.
Russia says its actions were fully justified by Georgia's "aggression" in attacking South Ossetia last week and maintains its troops must stay on the ground in Georgia to secure the situation and prevent further conflict.
"I accuse the government of Russia of a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing", Mr Saakashvili said last night. "We've received 14,000 reports of brutal attacks, slaughter, rapes and internment of people in violation of the rules of the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law."
Russian troops and armour remained deep inside Georgian territory today, in Moscow's biggest show of force outside its borders since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The United Nations has expressed alarm at lawlessness in war-torn areas. Witnesses in the area have seen Ossetian militiamen attacking villages and stealing cars.
Diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, which has unnerved oil markets and alarmed the West, continued today.
Georgia has yet to formally place its signature on a peace deal brokered this week by France, and Mr Saakashvili appeared uncertain about it.
"We are still in the negotiating process...Russians are trying to justify their invasion and to legalise their presence in Georgia," Mr Saakashvili told CNN. "...I think we should take a closer look at it (the peace agreement)."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel today met Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi, near Georgia's border, and urged Russia to embrace diplomacy. Germany is Russia's biggest trading partner and has historically taken a balanced position towards Moscow, meaning the Kremlin pays close attention to Berlin.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Mr Saakashvili's signature to a six-point peace deal would "consolidate" the halt to fighting and lead to the withdrawal of Russian troops.
But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said: "We can forget about talks on Georgia's territorial integrity because it's impossible to force South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree that they can be returned into Georgia's fold by force".
In a move further souring Russia's ties with Washington, Poland agreed yesterday to host elements of a US anti- missile system on its land after Washington agreed to base a battery of Patriot missiles there amid the Georgia crisis.
Russia views the plans for an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe as a serious threat to its national security and has promised to respond. A Moscow foreign ministry source today told local agencies that the haste with which Poland and the US agreed the deal "proved" that the system was targeted at Russia.
The West is determined to stop the Caucasus sliding further into conflict, not least out of fear for the security of key oil supply routes through the region from the Caspian Sea.
Yesterday, witnesses said Russian tanks had rolled through the Black Sea port of Poti, accompanying trucks with troops to the port area. A large column of Russian troops was seen in the western town of Zugdidi, not far from the second pro-Moscow separatist region of Abkhazia.
Reuters