TBILISI, Georgia - Western leaders engaged in intense diplomacy Friday to persuade Russia to pull troops out of Georgia, but regional tensions soared after a top Russian general warned that Poland could face attack over its missile defense deal with the United States.
In his strongest declaration of support for Georgia, US President George W. Bush declared that America would stand by the Georgian people and that the staunch American ally's territorial integrity must be respected after last week's eruption of violence.
"We will not cast them aside," he said in Washington.
But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at virtually the same time, said the separatist Georgian regions at the center of the conflict appear destined for independence.
"After what happened, it's unlikely Ossetians and Abkhazians will ever be able to live together with Georgia in one state," he said in a joint news conference in the Russian resort of Sochi with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Georgia Friday to press President Mikhail Saakashvili to sign a fragile cease-fire deal.
It would require major Georgian concessions, but Rice said the US would never ask Georgia to agree to something that isn't in its best interests.
The plan calls for the immediate withdrawal of Russian combat troops from Georgia, but allows Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia violence erupted of violence to remain and take a greater role there.
"This is not an agreement about the future of Abkhazia and the future of South Ossetia," Rice said. "This is about getting Russian troops out," she said.
As the West pressed for peace, Russian Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn was quoted by Interfax News Agency on Friday as saying that by accepting a US missile defense battery Poland "is exposing itself to a strike."
He pointed out that Russian military doctrine permits the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them," Interfax reported.
Poland and the US signed a deal Thursday for Poland to accept a missile defense battery as part of a system the United States says is aimed at blocking attacks by rogue nations but that Moscow claims is aimed at weakening Russia.
On the ground in Georgia, Russian troops on Friday allowed some humanitarian supplies into the strategic city of Gori but continued their blockade, raising doubts about Russian intentions in the war-battered country.
Gori, about 45 miles (75 kilometers) west of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, is key to when