"Before the negotiations commence, Georgia must withdraw its forces from the zone of conflict," Rogozin said.

By burning several villages in South Ossetia and allegedly killing 1,500 civilians in the course of one day, he said Georgia had committed "a genocide".

Rogozin also accused Tbilisi of "ethnic cleansing" because many residents in the breakaway Georgian region are of Russian origin.

Russia's foreign minister had made similar accusations on Friday.

"We have heard about ethnic cleansing in villages in South Ossetia," Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks.

The ambassador to NATO, however, said he did not want to exaggerate the conflict.

"There is no war between Russia and Georgia," warned Rogozin, adding that in the event of a war he "wouldn't envy" Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The Georgian leader said his country was ready to take immediate steps towards a ceasefire providing Russia stopped its attacks.

"We are willing to do a ceasefire immediately, provided the other side stops to shoot and to bomb," the Georgian leader told CNN on Saturday.

Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military campaign to take back the province which broke away in the early 1990s.

Georgia, a former Soviet Union republic, is keen to join NATO -- a move Russia vehemently opposes and which political analysts say would erode Moscow's influence in the strategic Caucasus region.

related report
South Ossetia talks must be based on Georgian integrity: NATO
Negotiations to end the fighting in South Ossetia must be based on Georgia's territorial integrity, NATO said Saturday, as it renewed its call for direct talks between the warring sides.

"NATO remains very concerned, there is no doubt about that," said a spokeswoman at the Brussels headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Georgia is keen to join despite Russian objections.

"The negotiations that we, NATO, and others are calling for can only be based on Georgia's territorial integrity," she told AFP, adding that NATO officials remain in contact with counterparts in both Georgia and Russia.

NATO staked out its position as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said there was little chance of separatist South Ossetia reintegrating with the rest of Georgia after this week's fighting.

The NATO spokeswoman said: "The NATO secretary general (Jaap de Hoop Scheffer) continues to believe that all sides involved must immediately cease military operations and start negotiating."

Georgia, a republic in the erstwhile Soviet Union, is keen to join NATO, after a summit of the transatlantic alliance in Bucharest in April declare -- without setting a date -- that it will become a member.

Russia objects to such a move, which is championed by the United States and which political analysts say would erode Moscow's influence in the strategic Caucasus region.

On Friday, Scheffer was one of the first to call for an end to the fighting in South Ossetia, and swiftly embarked on a blitz of telephone diplomacy.

He talked at least twice with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, as well as with Russian officials, urging them to cease hostilities.

Sheffer has not yet, however, made contact with either Russian President Dmitry Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the spokeswoman said.

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