Russia 'orders end to operation against Georgia'

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MOSCOW, Aug 12 (AFP): Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday he had decided to cease Russia's military operation against Georgia, Russian news agencies reported.

"I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace," Medvedev was quoted as saying at a meeting with defence officials.

"The purpose of the operation has been achieved.... The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored," Interfax quoted him as saying.

The decision was announced just as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the conflict in Georgia, centred on the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia.

Earlier report adds: Russian tanks roared deep into Georgia Monday, launching a new western front in the conflict, and Russian planes staged air raids that sent people screaming and fleeing for cover in some towns. The escalating warfare brought sharp words from President Bush, who pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and pull its troops out to avert a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence in the former Soviet republic.

Russian forces for the first time moved well outside the two restive, pro-Russian provinces claimed by Georgia that lie at the heart of the dispute. A reporter saw Russian troops in control of government buildings in this town just miles from the frontier and Russian troops were reported in nearby Senaki.