Georgia may pull its 35-strong Olympic team out of the Beijing Games because of Russian military attacks on its territory, the country's National Olympic Committee said on Saturday. “We're talking about it now. It will be the decision of the president of the country (Mikheil Saakashvili),” spokesman Giorgi Tchanishvili said in the Chinese capital. Georgia's parliament has declared a state of war, leaving the country's athletes anxious and uncertain. Its Olympic team urged the international community to help end the violence. Calls by the International Olympic Committe for the Olympic truce to be honored have gone unheard, in a reminder of the limits of sport's ability to bring nations into harmony. The Georgia conflict has knocked the Olympics down page, dimming some of China's glory. The vast Asian nations's hopes for a trouble-free games were upended again on Saturday by the daylight murder of the relative of a US volleyball coach. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called for a ceasefire on Saturday after Russian bombers widened an offensive to force back Georgian troops seeking control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. US President George W. Bush said Russian attacks on Georgia marked a “dangerous escalation” of the crisis and urged Moscow to halt the bombing immediately. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Bush the only solution was for Georgian troops to quit the conflict zone. Russia said it had seized the rebel capital, Tskhinvali, but Georgia denied the claim on the second day of fighting that threatens oil and gas pipelines seen as crucial in the West. Russian officials said the death toll now stood at 2,000 and 30,000 refugees from South Ossetia had fled to Russia over the past 36 hours. Russia said two of its warplanes had been shot down, 13 of its soldiers killed and 70 wounded. “I call for an immediate ceasefire,” Saakashvili said in Tbilisi. “Russia has launched a full scale military invasion of Georgia.” Russia's military response to the crisis dramatically intensified a long-running stand-off between Russia and the pro-Western Georgian leadership that has sparked alarm in the West and led to angry exchanges at the United Nations reminiscent of the Cold War. Abkhazia, another pro-Russian enclave in Georgia, said its forces had begun an operation to drive out Georgian forces, possibly opening a second front against Tbilisi. Bush, Saakashvili's main ally in the West, said Georgia's territorial integrity must be respected. “The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis,” said Bush, who is attending the Olympics in Beijing. In a telephone call with Bush, Medvedev “stressed that the only way out of the tragic crisis provoked by the Georgian leadership is a withdrawal by Tbilisi of its armed formations from the conflict zone,” a Kremlin statement said. Russian officials said there could be no talks until Georgian forces pulled back. Georgia's parliament approved a state of war across the country for the next 15 days, while Russia accused the West of contributing to the violence by supplying Georgia with arms. Ukraine, a former Soviet republic whose pro-Western government now wants membership of NATO and the European Union, had encouraged Georgia to carry out “ethnic cleansing” in South Ossetia, the Russian foreign ministry said. Russia, which sent in tanks to back the South Ossetians, said its forces had “liberated” the enclave's capital, but Georgia said Tskhinvali was under its “complete control”.
