Russia Says Conflict With Georgia Over South Ossetia Nearly Over

The Russian president, Dimitry Medvedev, today said military operations in South Ossetia were nearing their conclusion, according to the Russian agency Interfax.

However, despite sharp criticism from the US and Nato, Moscow was unrepentant about its continued armed punishment of Georgia.

Tbilisi said up to 50 Russian bombers had attacked its territory overnight, with one Russian bomb reported to have landed near Tbilisi's civilian airport shortly after the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, had landed.

Britain has condemned ongoing Russian attacks as "deplorable" while Nato's secretary general today joined George Bush in criticizing Russia over its "disproportionate" use of force against Georgia in the Caucasus.

A Nato spokeswoman said Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was "seriously concerned" about Russia's "lack of respect for the territorial integrity of Georgia", the former Soviet republic that Nato leaders declared in April would one day be a member of the alliance.

The statement followed Bush's comments to a US sports broadcaster in Beijing, where he was watching the Olympics. He said he had spoken firmly to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who was directing the Kremlin's actions in Georgia.

"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin," Bush told NBC Sports. "I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia. We strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia."

Russia meanwhile accused Georgia of violating its own ceasefire in the breakaway region.Moscow justified beefing-up its forces in a second separatist region, Abkhazia, as an attempt to prevent a repeat of what it called Georgia's "genocide" in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

In a move that could widen the conflict, Russia said it had boosted its forces in the Black Sea region to 9,000, although peacekeeping agreements allow it to have only 2,500 troops there. Moscow has flown in heavy artillery for the last two days and its Black Sea fleet is blockading the coast.

"The strengthening of the peacekeeping force is aimed at ruling out a repetition of the situation Russian peacekeepers faced in Tskhinvali, " Alexander Novitsky, the commander of the Russian peacekeepers, told Interfax. "Our troops have to defend civilians and avert a humanitarian catastrophe."

Russia says 2,000 civilians were killed and thousands made homeless when Georgia attacked South Ossetia last week in an attempt to bring the separatists to heel. Witness accounts suggest the death toll was very high.

Abkhazian fighters were blocking Georgian troops in the Kodori Valley, the last part of Abkhazia still controlled by Tbilisi.

Russian peacekeepers issued an ultimatum to Georgia to lay down its arms in the Zugdidi district bordering Abkhazia, which the Georgians rejected, according to Interfax.

The French and Finnish foreign ministers, who visited Tbilisi last night, were due in Moscow today hoping to persuade Russia that its retaliation against Georgia had gone far enough.

In a phonecall to the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, said Russian aggression must not go unanswered and that there would be serious consequences for its relations with the west if Moscow persisted.

Cheney did not spell out what sanctions might follow, but the threat of Russia's expulsion from the G8 - something that Republican presidential candidate John McCain has advocated in the past - might be one lever Washington could consider pulling.

On Sunday, a Russian defence spokesman said the army was not planning to push beyond the borders of disputed South Ossetia. "We do not plan to break into Georgian territory beyond the borders marked to the peacekeepers," Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters.

However, with the momentum provided by the war, the Kremlin may see a chance to overthrow the Tblisi regime that has irritated Russia with its pro-western stance and aspirations to join Nato.

The European Commission is providing €1m (£783,000) in humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the fighting in South Ossetia.

The EU aid and development commissioner, Louis Michel, said the commission was "extremely concerned" about the fighting. He called for an immediate end to hostilities and said it was crucial to guarantee safe access for aid and "safe passage" for displaced civilians.