WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States called for an end to violence in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia on Thursday, urging Georgia to show restraint and Russia to pressure the separatists to stop fighting.
Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said Washington was in close contact with senior Russian and Georgian officials to discuss the clashes in the Russian-backed region.
"We're urging Moscow to press South Ossetia's de facto leaders to stop firing. We're urging Tbilisi to maintain restraint," Gallegos told reporters.
"We're very concerned about the situation. We call for an immediate end to the violence and for direct talks between the parties," he said.
Georgia and its rebel region agreed to meet for talks on Friday, a Russian news agency reported, after a day of clashes that officials said killed up to 12 people and injured more than 20.
Russian news agencies meanwhile reported renewed artillery fire in South Ossetia's main town of Tskhinvali overnight Thursday.
Tensions have soared in South Ossetia since the rebels reported that six people had died in weekend shooting and announced that hundreds of women and children were being evacuated from the region.
In recent months, Moscow and Tbilisi have sparred repeatedly over South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia.
Georgia's pro-Western government accuses Moscow of seeking to annex the two regions and derail its efforts to join the transatlantic NATO alliance, which Russia vehemently opposes.
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