Stockholm  - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on Tuesday said the situation in Georgia was "serious," the day after he arrived in the country.

Russia has with "ground forces and quite extensive airstrikes completely destroyed what there was of Georgian defences, radar stations, communications, army bases," Bildt told Swedish radio news in Tbilisi.

The attacks had also caused "major damage" to the Georgian economy, he added.

Moscow/Tbilisi  - Russia military forces turned up the pressure on their Georgian opponents on Tuesday as international diplomats scrambled to bring a ceasefire to the widening war in Ossetia.

The sharpest combat as of Tuesday morning was in the Kodori Gorge in Georgia's west, where Abkhazia infantry and armour began an attack on Georgian defences, according to a Georgian government report.

Paris  - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently chairs the European Union, was expected to fly to Moscow and then to Tbilisi Tuesday to mediate the crisis over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Elysee Palace said.

Sarkozy spoke by telephone with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev twice Monday. He also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian President Silvio Berlusconi about his goal of reaching a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia.

Moscow, Aug 12 : With Russian Army moving into Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, in an apparent attempt to broaden the conflict over South Ossetia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will arrive here to undertake a peace plan.

Sarkozy will meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Kremlin to discuss a French peace plan that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed on Monday as Russian troops moved further into Georgia and casualties mounted outside the breakaway regions that sparked the war.

Washington/Tbilisi - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili remained defiant late Monday in the face of Russian attacks into Georgia and accused Moscow of committing "ethnic cleansing" in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia.

The conflict with Russia broke out last week in the Georgian separatist province of South Ossetia but quickly widened to include both Abkhazia and undisputed Georgian territory.

In an interview by telephone with US broadcaster CNN, Saakashvili said that the "biggest action" was currently in Abkhazia, where he alleged that ethnic Georgians were being forced out by Russian forces.

"I directly accuse Russia of ethnic cleansing," he said.

Washington - Russia's military offensive is designed to oust Georgia's democratically-elected government and intimidate other former Soviet states seeking closer ties to the West, Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Monday.

"This pattern of attack appears aimed not at restoring any status quo ante in South Ossetia, but rather at toppling the democratically- elected government of Georgia," McCain told reporters on the campaign trail in Erie, Pennsylvania.