BORMES LES MIMOSAS, France (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday urged Moscow and Tbilisi to sign "without delay" a ceasefire to end the conflict in Georgia.
The US top diplomat flew into France for talks with Sarkozy, who brokered a fragile ceasefire to end five days of fighting, before heading on Friday for crisis talks with Georgia's leaders in Tbilisi.
Both Sarkozy and Rice called for a swift end to the conflict, pledging their support for Georgia's territorial integrity, following their talks at Bregancon Fort, an official French presidential residence on the Riviera.
"It is time for this crisis to be over," Rice told reporters. "Georgia, whose territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty we fully respect, must be able to go back to normal life."
"We need to stop the shock of war. It takes time but we are making progress," agreed the French president.
The United States and Georgia have accused Russia of continuing attacks despite the ceasefire agreement, which both Georgia and Russia approved, but which neither have yet signed.
Both Rice and Sarkozy urged them to quickly formalise the truce "to consolidate the cessation of hostilities and accelerate the withdrawal of Russian forces to their positions prior to August 7," the French presidency said in a statement.
"The head of state and Mrs Rice both deemed that the six-point agreement protocol approved by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on August 12 must be signed without delay by the parties."
The French leader told reporters Rice would carry documents to Tbilisi for signature by Saakashvili.
Sarkozy later held talks with the British, Italian and Polish prime ministers as "part of efforts to speedily resolve the crisis in Georgia," his office said in a statement.
A senior US state department official told reporters Rice would bring Tbilisi "clarifying explanations of what some of the langage means" in the six-point agreement.
"Territorial integrity was one issue, the other issue is any residual security arrangements that the Russians would be able to maintain," he said.
He said the ceasefire would give the Russians a "very limited right" to patrol within a set area outside the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
France, which negotiated the truce on behalf of the European Union, is shortly to submit a draft UN Security Council resolution on the Caucasus conflict incorporating the ceasefire plan.
Sarkozy said there was "a great similarity of views" between France and the United States.
Both shared "a will to obtain peace, a withdrawal of Russian military forces from Georgia and the respect for the sovereignty, independence and integrity of Georgia," he said.
Rice's trip to Georgia for talks with Saakashvili is aimed at showing US solidarity with the former Soviet republic as it seeks support from its new Western allies.
Her visit comes a day after US President George W. Bush toughened his stance on the conflict, chiding Moscow for attacking Georgia and warning it had put post-Cold War relations with the West "at risk."
Russian troops and armour rolled into South Ossetia Friday in response to a Georgian bid to regain control of the renegade region which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.
The two countries engaged in five days of bitter fighting until the ceasefire was agreed Tuesday, but new clashes around Gori, northwest of Tbilisi, have underlined the fragility of the agreement.
Russian forces remained in the strategic town of Gori, which lies outside South Ossetia, where explosions were heard on Thursday.
Georgian officials accused Russian forces of destroying installations before their departure, although Russia insists it is sticking to the peace plan.
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