TOULON, France (AFP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, set off Tuesday for Moscow and then Tbilisi in a bid to halt the fighting in Georgia, officials said.
He left around 7:38 a.m. (0538 GMT) from Toulon city, on the French Mediterranean coast near where he has been on summer holiday.
Sarkozy was first to see Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and then Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, amid a conflict that began over South Ossetia but now sees Russian troops pushing deeper inside Georgia.
Officals said Sarkozy would arrive just after 1 p.m. (0900 GMT) in the Russian capital to see the Russian leader 40 minutes later, with a press conference at 2:40 p.m. local time and then a working lunch.
Sarkozy will then fly to Tbilisi, where he is expected at 7:20 p.m. for a working dinner a half-hour later with his Georgian counterpart, followed by a press conference at 8:30 p.m.
On Monday, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in New York rejected the proposed Western draft resolution in the Security Council based on a three-point French peace plan.
The plan -- which Tbilisi has accepted -- calls for an immediate truce, respect for Georgia's territorial integrity and a return to the status quo that prevailed before Georgian troops punched into South Ossetia last week.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, who currently heads up the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were in Moscow on Monday.
Saakashvili -- a staunch ally of the United States whose quest to take Georgia into NATO angers Russia -- declared Monday that "the majority of Georgia's territory is occupied."
Russian forces thrust further into Georgia on Monday, moving briefly into the western city of Senaki, destroying a military base, Russian and Georgian officials said.
Russian forces also entered Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti on Monday, Georgian and Russian officials said, in what Moscow described as a reconnaissance mission.
In a phone interview with CNN on Monday, Saakashvili said Russia was menacing the capital Tbilisi but vowed: "Georgia will never surrender." US President George Bush meanwhile urged Russia to accept the French-EU plan.
French officials said Sarkozy on Monday held two long telephone calls with Medvedev. He also conferred with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the crisis.
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