Moscow  - Russia accused Georgia of using "disproportionate force" in its separatist province of South Ossetia and warned it off inflaming tensions in the region, the foreign ministry said Monday.

Georgia's presidential envoy for conflict resolution rejected the statement as "in fact, an advanced declaration of (potential) war."

Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin admonished his Georgian counterpart Grigol Vashadze in a telephone interchange late Sunday, the Russian ministry said in statement posted on its website.

"Moscow is seriously concerned with the escalation of tension in the region caused by disproportionate use of force by the Georgian side," Karasin said in the statement.

The warning came as South Ossetia began sending bus-loads of over 500 women and children across the border to Russia after deadly weekend clashes in the region that has been self-governed since a ceasefire ended a bloody civil war in 1994.

Six people died and 22 other were injured in shelling that rebel leaders said deliberately targeted civilians

"Tbilisi must realize that the threat of a violent succession of events is real and should undertake tangible steps to avoid a further deepening of the crisis," the Russian side stated.

Georgia, who has lobbied Western support against Moscow's backing of its separatist regions, discredit Russian words as an attempt to "create an illusion of war" to derail new international peace talks.

"Actions are being undertaken to create an illusion of large-scale armed conflict, as if we were on the brink of war ... the Russian Foreign Ministry is obviously orchestrating and facilitating this process," Temur Yakobashvili, Georgia's minister on re-integration issues, shot back on Monday.

"All this is being done to derail peace process in which the international community is becoming increasingly involved," Yakobashvili said.

Russian peacekeeping troops have been deployed in Georgia's two breakaway areas since the end of the Soviet Union, but Tiblisi has protested recent moves by Moscow to strengthen ties with the regions as a creeping attempt to annex part of its territory.

Georgia's pro-western, US-allied government has long cited restoring the Caucasus nations' territorial integrity as a top priority. (dpa)