Earlier, media reports said Russian warships had set up a sea blockade to prevent arms and other military supplies from reaching Georgia, quoting a source in the Russian naval command.

"Our navy sailors have been assigned the task of preventing arms and other military supplies from reaching Georgia by sea,'' the source said.

Separately, RIA Novosti news agency quoted a senior navy source as denying that a blockade was in effect.

"These reports do not correspond with reality. A coastal blockade would mean war with Georgia. We are not in a state of war with Georgia,'' the RIA Novosti source said.

The Interfax news agency also reported that a Moskva missile cruiser and other Russian Black Sea Fleet ships had been deployed to Georgia's coast to prevent any weapons supplies, but a Russian navy spokesman refused to comment on the report.

Meanwhile, Georgian national security council secretary Alexander Lomaia said Georgia had asked the United States to act as a mediator with Russia in the crisis over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

"We have asked United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to mediate with the Russians, to transmit them our message,'' he said, after announcing that Georgian forces had withdrawn from nearly all of South Ossetia.

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

The Australian