Bush: Russia must 'reverse course' in Georgia

US President George W. Bush told Russia on Monday to end its military action in Georgia, calling Moscow's push into the smaller country an unacceptable invasion of a sovereign state.

"Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century," Bush said.

"There is evidence that Russian forces may soon begin bombing the civilian airport in the capital city. If these reports are accurate, these Russian actions would represent a dramatic and brutal escalation of the conflict in Georgia," he told reporters at the White House after returning from China.

Russian troops head to border region (Photo: AP)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized the United States for viewing Georgia as the victim, instead of the aggressor, and for airlifting Georgian troops back home from Iraq on Sunday.

''Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages,'' Putin said in Moscow. ''And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed ten Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds - these leaders must be taken under protection.''

Georgia: Russia 'cutting the country in half'

Meanwhile on Monday, Russian forces pushed a second front deep into Georgia, seizing towns and a military base in the western parts of the country. Georgia's president said his country had been effectively cut in half with the capture of the main east-west highway near the central city of Gori.

The Russian Defense Ministry denied Georgian claims of taking Gori and rejected allegations that its forces were preparing to head for the capital, Tbilisi, according to Russian news reports. But it appeared that Russia aimed to use its huge military to intimidate its diminutive neighbor and force it to abandon any hope of regaining control of two Russian-backed separatist provinces.

Russian officials, including Putin, have accused Georgia of committing genocide by launching an offensive last week to try to retake control of separatist South Ossetia. Georgia's pro-US leadership in turn alleges Russia aims to violently overturn its government on the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.

Georgian tank passes by statue of Stalin (Photo: AP)

The reported capture of Gori and the towns of Senaki, Zugdidi and Kurga came despite a top Russian general's claim earlier Monday that Russia had no plans to enter Georgian territory. By taking Gori, which sits on Georgia's only east-west highway, Russia can cut off eastern Georgia from the country's western Black Sea coast.

''(Russian forces) came to the central route and cut off connections between western and eastern Georgia,'' Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told a national security meeting.

The news agency Interfax, however, cited a Russian Defense Ministry official as denying Gori was captured. Attempts to reach Gori residents by telephone late Monday did not go through.

Security Council head Alexander Lomaia said Monday it was not immediately clear if Russian forces would advance on Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. But the Russian Defense Ministry denied such intentions, the Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies said.

UN to meet, again

At Georgia's request, UN Security Council in New York called an emergency session for later Monday - the fifth meeting on the fighting in as many days.

The two-front battlefield was a major escalation in the conflict that blew up late Thursday after a Georgian offensive to regain control of the separatist province of South Ossetia. Even as Saakashvili signed a cease-fire pledge Monday with EU mediators, Russia flexed its military muscle and appeared determined to subdue the small US ally that has been pressing for NATO membership.

On Monday afternoon, Russian troops invaded Georgia from the western separatist province of Abkhazia while most Georgian forces were busy with fighting in the central region around South Ossetia.

Russian armored personnel carriers moved into Senaki, a town 20 miles (32 kilometers) inland from Georgia's Black Sea port of Poti, Lomaia said. Russian news agencies late Monday cited the Defense

Ministry as saying the troops had left Senaki ''after liquidating the danger,'' but did not give details.

Russian forces also moved into Zugdidi, near Abkhazia, and seized police stations, while their Abkhazian allies took control of the nearby village of Kurga, according to witnesses and Georgian officials.

Saakashvili signed a ceasefire pledge Monday proposed by the French and Finnish foreign ministers. The EU envoys headed to Moscow to try to persuade Russia to accept it. Saakashvili, however, voiced concern that Russia's true goal was to undermine his pro-Western government.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report