We'll impose sanctions against Russia, says EU

Mr Kouchner, in the first suggestion of a specific response by Brussels, revealed that economic reprisals were being looked at after Moscow's recognition of independence for the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

He broke with France's recent reluctance to back direct action and said that "sanctions are being considered".

Gordon Brown is expected to join fellow EU leaders at an emergency summit on Monday as the 27-nation alliance weighs up the Kremlin's actions.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said today that Britain did not want "all-out war" with Russia but warned that the West would one day have to militarily defend Georgia and Ukraine if they became members of Nato.

The Foreign Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today today: "There is no question of launching an all-out war with Russia. The question though for Russia is whether it wants to suffer the isolation, the loss of respect and the loss of trust that comes from [its aggression]."

When asked if the West would ultimately defend allies on Russia's borders "at the point of a gun", Mr Miliband replied: "The Nato commitment is to do that. It is written into the Nato charter.

"What's happened since the collapse of the Soviet Union is not a Western plot - it's a series of decisions by independent sovereign democracies about the course that they want to take."

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev today appealed to its Asian neighbours for support but in a statement countries such as China merely expressed the "concern" that events in Georgia had to be resolved peacefully.

Moscow tried to reduce tensions today after increasingly bellicose rhetoric on both sides over the build-up of Nato forces in the Black Sea.

Russian forces turned over 12 Georgian soldiers on the border of one of the separatist provinces that are now under Russian control.

The release along the Inguri River that separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper was seen as a small gesture of co-operation.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Mr Miliband of being "hypocritical" in his criticism of Moscow, saying that Britain had itself rushed to defend the Falklands.

Russian general Anatoly Nogovitsyn criticised the arrival of the US Coastguard cutter Dallas at the Black Sea port of Batumi, the second of three US ships sent to deliver aid to Georgia.

"If Nato takes military actions against Abkhazia and South Ossetia, acting solely in support of Tbilisi, this will mean a declaration of war on Russia," he said.