Georgian president offers ceasefire to separatists

GEORGIA:GEORGIAN PRESIDENT Mikheil Saakashvili offered a ceasefire last night to separatists in South Ossetia, after fierce fighting between his troops and rebel forces prompted Russian warnings of all-out war in the breakaway region.

"I offer you an immediate ceasefire and the immediate beginning of talks," Mr Saakashvili said. There was no immediate response from the South Ossetian side.

His offer came after clashes around Avnevi, one of many Tbilisi-controlled, predominantly Georgian villages in mostly separatist-run South Ossetia.

"The fighting is intense," Shota Utiashvili, a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry, told The Irish Times. " blew up an armoured personnel carrier at a checkpoint, injuring several peacekeepers. In mortar fire afterwards, two officers were killed."

South Ossetian officials said they were only responding to Georgian attacks on separatist-controlled areas, where they claimed about 20 people had been injured.

Senior US officials said Washington and Moscow had agreed to try and halt the fighting in South Ossetia, while a spokeswoman for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said he had expressed "serious concern about the mounting violence" in the region.

Reporters in South Ossetia, which fought free of Tbilisi's control in a 1991-2 war, said gunfire and loud explosions could be heard. Tbilisi accuses Russia of propping up South Ossetia with cash and arms, to maintain Kremlin influence in the Caucasus region and undermine Georgia's bid to join Nato.

Georgia blamed Russia for dropping a bomb near South Ossetia last year and, last month, Russian fighter jets flew over Tskhinvali just hours before US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi.

After the separatists claimed to be evacuating hundreds of children to Russian-controlled North Ossetia following what they called lethal shelling by Georgian forces, Mr Utiashvili said yesterday that Tbilisi might evacuate Georgian villages in South Ossetia.

"They are under constant shelling and danger," he said.

"All forces near South Ossetia are on alert in case of an emergency situation," he added, amid reports that special police units and a mechanised army brigade had been moved to the town of Gori, the birthplace of Josef Stalin, about 30km from the separatist capital of Tskhinvali.

Russia has given passports to most South Ossetians and says it will intervene if fighting threatens its citizens.