Missile shield deal adds to tension

Condoleezza Rice arrived in Georgia today as the United States accused Russia of waging a campaign to cripple its neighbour's ability to defend itself in the future.

The US Secretary of State landed in Tbilisi to lend American support to the beleaguered Georgian government. She pledged to push for Russian troops to leave the country imminently.

“We’ll try to get this formal ceasefire in place because the goal of this is to get a ceasefire and to get Russian forces to withdraw from the country ASAP,” she said.

An American military transport aircraft had already landed in the Georgian capital to strong complaints from Moscow while the Russian Army undertook search-and-destroy missions on Georgian soil in defiance of the terms of the ceasefire.

Tanks and soldiers continued to occupy Gori despite promising to leave by yesterday. A Georgian military base in the city was destroyed and the Georgian Ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe accused the Russians of laying mines before a withdrawal.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, will urge President Medvedev of Russia to embrace diplomacy when she meets him later today in Sochi, the Russian Black Sea resort near Georgia’s border.

The Pentagon has vented its anger with Moscow by cancelling two joint naval exercises involving Russian ships. In a reminder of the conflict's global implications, the US reached agreement with Poland last night over the controversial missile defence shield.

Under the deal, the US will beef up Polish defences with Patriot rockets and place ten missile defence interceptors in Poland. Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, said that the US had pledged to come to the aid of his country if it came under attack. In Georgia, Russian troops destroyed four coastguard vessels and radar facilities in the Black Sea port of Poti, which is critical to the country’s economy, and scoured forests and fields outside the city for Georgian military equipment.

The US said that Russia was deliberately sabotaging airfields and military bases to weaken Georgia’s military. In turn, the deputy head of Russia’s General Staff raised doubts about the aid delivered to Tbilisi on board C17 transports of the US Air Force.

“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,” Colonel-General Anatoli Nogovitsyn told reporters in Moscow.

“Let’s ask them: will they invite you to check whether it is humanitarian or not? What is in it in reality? It is of major concern to Russians.”

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs