Russia defies US and keeps up the bombing

New military clashes broke out between Russia and Georgia today as Vladimir Putin rejected calls for a ceasefire amid the deepening crisis in the former Soviet republic.

Today's fighting began with bombing raids by Russian warplanes against Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti and a communications facility on the outskirts of the capital Tbilisi.

Georgia said dozens of bombers had attacked and claimed that Gori, a town close to the separatist region of South Ossetia which sparked the conflict, had also come under heavy fire.

There were further reports of Russian paratroopers pouring into Abkhazia, a second rebel region of Georgia, where Moscow now has more than 9,000 soldiers as well as tanks and armoured vehicles.

At the same time, Russia accused Georgia of shelling the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and claimed that the missiles had killed three of its troops and injured dozens more.

The continuing clashes, which have caused more than 2,000 civilian casualties, came despite the signing of a ceasefire pledge by Georgian president Mikhail Saakshvili after a meeting today with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb.

US President George Bush and vicepresident Dick Cheney called for an end to the fighting - with Mr Bush calling Moscow's actions "disproportionate" and Mr Cheney warning of "serious consequences" for Russia if it failed to respond.

The robust American response - which will raise fears of the further escalation of the four-day-old conflict - brought a withering reaction from the Russian prime minister. He lambasted the US for its role in airlifting home 2,000 Georgian troops - who have been recalled from Iraq - and rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying that Russia would continue its mission in South Ossetia.

"It is a shame that some of our partners are not helping us but, essentially, are hindering us," Mr Putin said. "I mean the transfer by the United States of a Georgian contingent in Iraq with military transport planes practically to the conflict zone. The very scale of this cynicism is astonishing - the attempt to turn white into black, black into white and to adeptly portray victims of aggression as aggressors and place the responsibility for the consequences of the aggression on the victims.

"Russia, of course, will take its peacekeeping mission to a logical conclusion. We will strive for working relations with all participants of this conflict, and that, of course, includes the Georgian side," Mr Putin said. The US President said that he had told Mr Putin of his "grave concern" about the violence during a face-to-face meeting in Beijing, where they were attending the Olympics, and strongly criticised the Kremlin's actions as "disproportionate".

Vice-president Dick Cheney also stepped up the diplomatic pressure by declaring that Russian aggression "must not go unanswered" and warned of "serious consequences" - a phrase used to signal military action before the Iraq war - if it continued.

Mr Bush said he had emphasised his determination to bring the fighting to a halt. "I was very firm with Vladimir Putin. I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia," Mr Bush told NBC Sports. "We strongly condemn bombing outside South Ossetia."

Mr Cheney spoke after a conversation with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili but the White House refused to speculate further on what the US might do if Russian attacks continued.

Today was the fourth day of Russian raids into Georgia in retaliation for the former republic's decisions to send troops into South Ossetia, which has close links to Russia, on Friday.

Georgian interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said: "There were two bombings. One at the Kojori military base and another on Mount Makhata. As far as I know there are no casualties."

The raids came despite Georgia's offer of a ceasefire and peace talks with Russia, and its decision to pull its own troops out of South Ossetia. Russia claims that Georgiantroops are still fighting its forces. The West views Georgia as a valuable, if volatile, ally because of its strategic location on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe. Oil prices rose again today, with crude topping $116 a barrel.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have seriously deteriorated because of Mr Saakashvili's attempts to move closer to the West and join Nato.