Lavrov calls on Georgian president to quit

Georgian official to 'Post': Military has orders to hold off attack for as long as possible.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili must leave office and demanded that Georgian troops stay out of South Ossetia for good. Lavrov also said that Moscow wouldn't talk to Saakashvili. He said the best thing for Saakashvili to do "would be to step down." Lavrov's statement sets a tough stage for Russia's talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy who is heading to Moscow Tuesday to negotiate an EU-brokered truce for the fierce conflict over Georgia's breakaway region. Meanwhile, fiove civilians were reported dead when Russian jets bombed the Georgian city of Gori overnight Monday. The Dutch ambassador in Georgia said a Dutch TV correspondent among those killed. Ambassador Onno Van Elderenbosch said Tuesday he was not able to release the name of the journalist, who worked for RTL-2 television. One of the man's colleagues was wounded. The bombing hit a media center that had been set up on the top floor of the town's television and radio center. Georgian officials said fired broke out in Gori's university and a post office. The town was all but deserted after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers fled late Monday. Also Tuesday, the Polish president's office said he and his counterparts from Ukraine and the Baltic states were traveling to Georgia to try to mediate in the conflict. Polish President Lech Kaczynski was set to leave Warsaw on Tuesday for Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and was taking with him the presidents of Ukraine and two of the three Baltic states - Estonia and Lithuania. Latvia's president was due to join them in Georgia. Kaczynski's office said that he discussed the plan late Monday in a phone conversation with US President George W. Bush and that the US leader expressed full support for the mission.