Georgia crisis: Bush warns Russia that its actions will jeopardize relations

Washington, Aug.12 : Calling Russia's actions in Georgia "unacceptable", U.S. President George Bush has warned Moscow that it is in danger of jeopardizing its relations with Washington. The warning came as fighting continues to rage in South Ossetia and Russia rejecting Georgia's latest ceasefire proposal.

Responding to a Russian ground advance beyond the enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, effectively cutting Georgia in two, separating its Black Sea coast from the capital Tbilisi, Bush said in a statement given outside the White House that he had evidence that Russia "may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in Tbilisi.

He said that if such an attack was carried out, it "would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia."

The U.S. president, however, did not commit his country to any direct action against Russia.

Georgian forces are already in a full scale disorganised and panicked retreat from Gori and the country's officials yesterday confirmed they were transferring "all troops" from South Ossetia towards Tbilisi.

According to The Telegraph, they were crammed into vehicles heading down road towards the capital. They say 6,000-7,000 Russian troops are heading their way and the Georgians are abandoning their positions.

A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said that Russian forces had also moved into the town of Zugdidi in the west and seized police stations, and had made bombing raids on a communications facility in Tblisi, the Georgian capital.

Moscow began moving troops from the breakaway region of Abkhazia into the town of Senaki, well inside western Georgia, earlier today, while most Georgian troops were tied up in the north, and just hours after senior military figures insisted Russia was not planning offensives in the main area of the country.

Although both Russian and Georgian officials confirmed that the Russian forces had withdrawn from Senaki, it was not clear how far back they had pulled.

The new troop movements were revealed as Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, said: "There is no justification for continued Russian military action in Georgia, which threatens the stability of the entire region and risks a humanitarian catastrophe."

He said there was a "clear responsibility" on Moscow to agree a ceasefire and bring a swift end to the conflict.

Responding to international diplomatic pressure to bring hostilities to a close, Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, said his country would pursue operations to their "logical conclusion" and accused the US of aiding its enemy by transporting Georgian troops to the conflict zone from Iraq.

Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, said in a televised address that Russia is seeking to occupy all of Georgia.

Both sides accuse each other of ethnic cleansing in the violence, in which more than 2,000 civilians are thought to have died and more than 40,000 are feared to have been displaced.

ANI