President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a ceasefire to the Russian military action in Georgia after five days of intensive air raid and tank attack and said that the ‘force peace" mission has been accomplished in the region.He further added," The secutity of our peacekeepers and civilians has been restored. Medvedev had ordered Operation Peace Enforcement on 8th August after the Georgian government troops launched a massive offensive to retake breakaway province of South Ossetia, most of the population of which are Russian citizens.

The announcement comes hours before the French President Nicholas Sarkozy is due to arrive in Moscow with a joint EU and OSCE peace plan.

Russia on Tuesday virtually ruled out the joint plan proposed by the European Union (EU) and Organisation of Security and Cooperation (OSCE) and blamed the US for inciting President Saakashvili"s regime for attacking South Ossetia.

“We do not trust Saakashvili, because he has not repented for the war crimes committed by him against our citizens in South Ossetia," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stuub.

As the rotating president of OSCE Finnish Minister Stubb and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner are in Moscow after their Monday"s visit to Tbilisi, where President Saakashvili signed an EU, OSCE plan providing for immediate cessation of hostilities, restoration of military status quo by withdrawal of troops from South Ossetia and launching of humanitarian relief.

Lavrov repeated Moscow"s demand for Georgian military withdrawal to the points from where Tbilisi could not in future attack South Ossetia and a legally binding pact on non-use of force against the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

He accused the US for inciting Saakashvili for military “misadventure" in South Ossetia.

“The US have given a lot of money and equipment to Saakashvili to train Georgian Army, although we had expressed concerns that he could use it inside the country".

However, Washington assured us that it will not happen.

In the past they (Americans) have been stopping Saakashvili at our request, when he was on the verge of this, but this time for some reasons they could not control him," Lavrov said.

Speaking about his telephonic conversation with the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Lavrov said, “Rice advised us not to use words like ‘genocide" and ‘war crimes" referring to Georgian regime, but she forgot to give similar advice to Saakashvili, while talking about Russia."

Russian forces have halted their advance on Georgian territory but are not withdrawing, Georgia"s Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili said on Tuesday in televised comments.

“The Russians have halted their advance. There is no movement of Russian forces, but they are staying at their occupied positions," he said.

“The ceasefire agreement is yet to be signed … the Medvedev statement could mean that hopefully they will not fire at us anymore," he added.

Russia"s President Dmitry Medvedev said today he had ordered a halt to the military offensive against Georgia after the army staged new strikes against its neighbour.

“I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian authorities into peace," Medvedev was quoted as saying at a meeting with defence officials on the conflict over the separatist region of South Ossetia.

“The purpose of the operation has been achieved…. The security of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been restored," the news agency quoted the President as saying.

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