US:US SECRETARY of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday urged Russia to help broker peace between Georgia's government and two Moscow-backed separatist regions.
Dr Rice's call came as Russia claimed its fighter jets had flown over Georgia to prevent military action on the ground.
Russia's admission that four jets entered Tbilisi's airspace without permission angered Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, who has vowed to bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia back under central control after more than 15 years of de facto independence.
"I believe there is a way to resolve this peacefully," Dr Rice said, amid bombing and shelling deaths in both regions and mutual accusations of blame from Moscow and Tbilisi.
Dr Rice said she would propose high-level meetings to discuss the growing crisis, and urged Russia to do more to solve the problem and stop "contributing to it".
Moscow is deeply angered by Georgia's attempt to join Nato, however, and threatened to use "military resources" to counter a long-range US missile shield, or radar system, that will be built in the Czech Republic, according to a deal signed in Prague this week.
Washington wants to link the radar system with an interceptor rocket base planned for Poland, to knock out missiles fired from so-called rogue states.
Russia insists that it is the real target of the US system, and says attempts to bring Georgia and Ukraine into Nato will only destabilise eastern Europe and reignite "frozen conflicts" like those in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"The need arose to take urgent and active measures to prevent bloodshed and keep the situation within peaceful bounds," Russia's foreign ministry said of its fighter jets' sortie over South Ossetia, which took place just hours before Dr Rice arrived in Georgia.
Georgia regularly accuses Russian aircraft of illegally entering its airspace, but Moscow has never admitted a breach in recent years.
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