Cold war map will not be redrawn, US warns Russia

Nato suspends normal ties with Moscow

The Bush administration warned Russia today that it would fail in its "strategic objective" of redrawing Europe's post-cold war map by invading Georgia as 26 Nato countries declared there would be "no business as usual" with Moscow until it withdraws its forces from Georgia.

An emergency meeting in Brussels of Nato foreign ministers voiced strong support for Georgia and agreed to establish new structures cementing Georgia's links with the west, but avoided speeding up moves to bring Georgia into Nato.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, accused Russian forces in Georgia of "bombing civilians and wanton destruction" and told the Kremlin that the Russian government had hard choices to make if it wanted to avoid international isolation. The ministers also opted to freeze sessions of the six-year-old Nato-Russia council until the Russian retreat from Georgia was completed.

"This Nato which has come so far in a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace is not going to permit a new line to be drawn in Europe," said Rice. "There will absolutely be no new line."

With the US, Britain, and the former Soviet satellites of central Europe adopting a robust position on the Kremlin's conduct, the more pro-Russian governments in the European Union such as Germany, Italy, and France were muted today.

French, British and US officials are drafting a UN security council resolution in New York stiffening the terms of a Russian pullout, and agreement was reached to deploy the first western monitors in Georgia. Twenty unarmed military officers are to go to Georgia tomorrow, with another 80 expected to follow within weeks.

But the agreement to deploy international monitors took a week to finalise and was only sealed after negotiations through the night today in Vienna by Finnish diplomats and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe together with the Russians and the Georgians.