Russia occupies Georgia, world pressure mounts

In a move likely to sour further Russia's ties with the U.S., Poland finally agreed on Thursday to host elements of a U.S. global anti-missile system on its land after Washington improved the terms of the deal amid the Georgia crisis.

Russia views the planned U.S. anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe as a threat to its national security.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday to urge Moscow to embrace diplomacy in its showdown with Georgia to avoid a serious rift with the West.

Widening the ramifications of the conflict, Russia's neighbor Ukraine announced it would enforce a presidential decree demanding that warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet based at a Ukrainian port get advance permission before putting to sea or returning.

That decision drew an angry response from Moscow, with the Russian General Staff dismissing it as "illegitimate" and insisting the Russian fleet would only obey orders from its commander-in-chief in the Kremlin.

Reuters witnesses on Thursday saw Russian troops in the key central Georgian town of Gori and outside the western town of Zugdidi.

"We have no idea what they are doing there ... why such a heavy force," Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said during a teleconference. "One explanation could be that they are just trying to battle the civilian population."

Residents in the Black Sea port of Poti saw a Russian incursion.

The Russian General Staff said it was legitimate for "Russian peacekeepers" to be in Poti and for what it termed reconnaissance parties to be in Gori, two days after Russia signed up to a French-led peace plan to stop the fighting.

The peace agreement brokered by Sarkozy contains a clause allowing Moscow's forces "to implement additional security measures" while awaiting international monitors.

The conflict has spooked oil markets, reliant on pipelines through the Caucasus for Caspian oil, and alarmed the West, which fears it could spiral out of control.

In Georgia, a second U.S. military plane arrived, bringing in aid in a show of American support. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has criticized the United States for failing to act strongly enough to help him.

But the Russian General Staff's deputy chief, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, criticized the U.S. airlift to Georgia announced by Bush.

POTI

"We have information that American military-transport aviation say they are delivering a certain humanitarian cargo to Tbilisi airport, though they said we had bombed the airport two days ago," he said.

"Let's ask them: Will they invite you (the media) to check whether it is humanitarian or not?... What is in it (the cargo) in reality?...It is of major concern to Russians."