August 11, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — As Russian troops continue their attacks on Georgia, the world's seven largest economic powers are calling on Russia to accept an immediate cease-fire with Georgia and agree to international mediation over the crisis in Georgia's separatist areas.

A State Department official says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the other foreign ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations spoke by telephone on Monday and pledged their support for a negotiated solution to the conflict that has been raging since Friday between the former Soviet state and Russia.

They called on Russia to respect Georgia's borders and expressed deep concern for civilian casualties that have occurred. Georgian President Saakashvili said Monday that he had signed a cease-fire pledge proposed by envoys from the European Union. President Mikhail Saakashvili says he signed the document together with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb.

Saakashvili says the EU mediators will head to Moscow later Monday to try to persuade Russia to accept the cease-fire. Meanwhile, a senior general says Russia has no plans to move its troops from Georgia's two breakaway provinces into Georgian-controlled territory. Deputy chief of General Staff Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn says Russia does not intend to move deeper into Georgia.