Russia pressed forward a massive military adva ntage in the disputed Georgian region of South Ossetia last night after three days of intense fighting forced its neighbour to issue a ceasefire and begin withdrawing troops.

Amid condemnation by Western diplomats and a terse meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russia refused initially to respond to Georgia's ceasefire, saying fighting would stop only when all forces had been fully withdrawn and agreement had been reached that no further military attacks would take place.

Hours after a ceasefire was ordered by Georgia yesterday afternoon, reports were filtering through that Russia had attacked military and civilian airports around Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and sunk a Georgian boat carrying missile launchers in the Black Sea.

Russian troops and tanks took control of Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's devastated capital, early yesterday. Moscow said 2000 civilians were killed and thousands made homeless in a "humanitarian catastrophe".

A Reuters reporter in the town of Gori, just south of South Ossetia, reported heavy bombardment of areas around Tskhinvali yesterday evening, although it was not clear who was firing.

Russian planes again bombed the Tbilisi military airport and a nearby aviation plant. One bomb exploded near the runway of the civilian international airport, although Moscow denied targeting that facility.

A Reuters photographer entering Tskhinvali with Russian troops yesterday saw the bodies of Georgian soldiers lying in the streets and the ruins of buildings devastated in the fighting.

Georgia and Russia have accused each other of causing widespread civilian casualties since the fighting began.

A Georgian government source said yesterday 130 Georgian civilians and military personnel had been killed and 1165 wounded, many because of Russian bombing inside Georgia. Russia denied targeting civilians.

Russian television showed what it said were pictures from Tskhinvali of burnt-out buildings, wounded civilians receiving medical treatment in basements and weeping mothers complaining of a lack of food and water.

"The Georgian tanks fired at everything they saw, including women and children," one man said after his evacuation over the border to the Russian region of North Ossetia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cut short his visit to the Olympics on Saturday and flew to a field hospital in North Ossetia, visiting wounded troops and evacuees, and denouncing what he termed Georgia's "crimes against its own people".

Mr Putin later briefed a Moscow-bound Dmitry Medvedev on his trip, which underlined Putin's continued dominance of Russian politics and government.

Reflecting Western alarm at the widening conflict, the United States condemned Russia's "disproportionate and dangerous" military action. France, the holder of the EU presidency, sent its foreign minister on a peace mission.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "We are urging an immediate ceasefire to the fighting in South Ossetia and calling for a resumption of direct dialogue between the parties."

At the fourth UN Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis, the US also accused Russia of attempting to effect "regime change" in Georgia.

It followed comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili was no longer regarded as a partner to the former superpower.

Mr Saakashvili, in turn, accused Russia of trying to take over his country to secure energy supply routes from central Asia.