US President George W Bush has accused Russia of "bullying and intimidation" in its relations with Georgia.
Reiterating his strong support for Georgia, Mr Bush said Russia had to honour its pledge to withdraw its troops from its southern neighbour.
He said a "contentious relationship" with the US and Europe was not in Russia's interests.
Mr Bush spoke as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi for talks with Georgian president meets German Chancellor in Berlin ...
President Bush's farewell tour hits Britain ... the Georgian president.
Her trip - a show of US support - comes a week after fighting began between Russian and Georgian forces over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Ms Rice will present President Mikhail Saakashvili with a European Union-brokered ceasefire deal, but he has said he would need "a closer look" before signing.
The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has demanded that Georgia sign the deal immediately - but said only Russia could guarantee peace in the region.
"Guarantor" of security
In a statement at the White House, Mr Bush said he would keep in close contact with Ms Rice.
"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st Century," Mr Bush said.
"Only Russia can decide whether it will now put itself back on the path of responsible nations or continue to pursue a policy that promises only confrontation and isolation."
Three days after a ceasefire was brokered to end fighting between Russia and Georgia, Russian troops remain deep inside Georgian territory.
Meanwhile, after talks with President Medvedev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the Russian response as "disproportionate".
But Mr Medvedev said Russia was the "guarantor" of the interests and lives of those in South Ossetia and Georgia's other separatist region of Abkhazia.
He said they trusted Russian troops, and that this had to be taken into account.
Mr Medvedev said he did not want to damage relations with other countries but that Russia had to fulfil its peacekeeping mandate, and that it would respond in the same way if its troops were attacked.
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(BBC)
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