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A victorious Kremlin agreed to a ceasefire in the Caucasus last night on terms that left Georgia and its Western backers weakened.

After five days of fighting, President Medvedev of Russia ordered his troops in South Ossetia to hold their fire and fixed a six-point peace plan with President Sarkozy of France.

The deal, confirmed by Georgia’s President Saakashvili last night, did not address the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakway provinces that want closer links with Russia.

The French President, negotiating on behalf of the EU, insisted that Moscow had promised to respect Georgia’s sovereignty even though the proposals raised questions about its territorial integrity.

In the United States, there was widespread dismay over the ease with which Moscow had imposed its will on a loyal US ally.

Mr Sarkozy spent three hours hammering out the details with Mr Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister.

It was agreed that forces would withdraw to their positions before Georgia attacked last Thursday, allowing aid workers to attend a civilian population which, according to the Russians, has suffered up to 2,000 casualties.

However, fighting continued after the ceasefire was announced. Forces backed by Russia launched an offensive in the only part of Abkhazia still under Georgian control. An area near the town of Gori was bombed. A Dutch television cameraman was killed by a shell, and his colleague was wounded. The Times was shown a fragment of what appeared to be a Grad missile that had struck an apartment building behind the main square.

The peace talks were delayed by arguments over Russia’s determination to “mop up pockets of resistance”, according to the French.

About 135 Russian military vehicles were seen driving through Georgia en route to the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia, the last zone held by the Georgians. Abkhazian officials later claimed that their forces, not the Russians, had captured the area.

Later, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, appeared to toughen the ceasefire terms, saying that Georgia must also sign a binding treaty on the nonuse of force. He also demanded the departure of President Saakashvili.

Mr Medvedev made clear with angry and sometimes crude remarks that Moscow blamed Tbilisi for the violence and aimed to hammer home its advantage. Without mentioning President Saakashvili, Mr Medvedev said that Tbilisi had committed genocide and that its leaders should face punishment for “ethnic cleansing”. He said: “When crazy people smell blood, it’s impossible to stop them. You have to use surgery to stop them.”

He also accused the West of using double standards by supporting the independence of the Serbian province of Kosovo this year while protecting “bastards and terrorists” with talk about inviolable sovereignty.

Both Georgia and Russia said that they were planning to file complaints of “ethnic cleansing” against one another at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Georgian Government again accused the Russians of massacre.

Last night, in a show of solidarity with Georgia, the leaders of five former communist countries appeared on stage in central Tbilisi and linked arms in front of tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian President, told the crowd: “You have the right to freedom and independence. We are here to demonstrate our solidarity . . . freedom is worth fighting for.” President Kaczynski of Poland said: “This country [Russia] seeks to restore its dominance, but the time of dominance is over.”

In Washington, conservatives said that the Russian invasion had inflicted profound damage on the goal of helping aspiring democracies in the Caucasus. Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, said that the Russian invasion was the West’s hour of truth. Russia, he said, had shown that it could sabotage American and EU efforts to integrate emerging democracies into Western structures such as Nato.

Mr Sarkozy, who had to juggle opposing views among fellow EU leaders, said that the priority was a ceasefire, not passing judgment. He also proposed EU peacekeepers if all sides wanted them. EU leaders were split last March over the US plan to offer Georgia Nato membership. Italy and Germany were opposed while Poland and the other former Soviet satellite states were in favour.

Mr Putin’s presence at the peace talks shows that he retains supreme power. His well-planned military operation underlined the West’s weakness in the face of Russia. It especially embarrassed the United States, which has strongly promoted Mr Saakashvili’s Government as a democratic model in Moscow’s back yard.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4516025.ece