Aug. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Russia rejects calls by the international community to declare an immediate cease-fire with Georgia in the conflict over the separatist South Ossetia region, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today.

Georgia, a U.S. ally, must withdraw all forces from South Ossetia and sign a non-aggression pact with the breakaway region and then ``the situation can calm down,'' Lavrov told reporters in a telephone briefing in Moscow. He said 1,500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed so far.

Russia reserves the right to attack any part of Georgia used for the offensive in South Ossetia, the minister said. ``Whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe,'' Lavrov said. ``The source of the aggression must be hit to prevent the aggressor from doing that again.''

Russia poured troops and tanks yesterday into South Ossetia in what it said was a response to Georgia's assault on civilians and Russian peacekeeping forces in the disputed region. Russian warplanes also bombed targets in Georgia. Georgia said 30 Georgians were killed. Georgia called it a ``well-planned invasion'' and appealed for international help.

In Moscow, a senior Russian officer said two Russian planes were shot down in the fighting. Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, told reporters Russia had lost two planes. He didn't say where they were shot down.

Russia has every right to act as it has because it is enforcing peace in South Ossetia, Lavrov said. Georgia is shelling residential areas and bombing humanitarian convoys, some of which are evacuating the wounded, the Russian foreign minister said.

`Peace Enforcement'

``We are responsible for keeping the peace,'' he said. ``If it takes peace enforcement, we will do that.''

Lavrov implicitly accused the U.S., which has trained and equipped the Georgian military and backed the country's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of responsibility for the crisis.

``Whoever has been supplying arms to Georgia should field part of the blame,'' he said.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, came to power in the 2003 ``Rose Revolution'' backed by the U.S.

He has vowed to bring South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region, under central control in a challenge to Russia, which has granted citizenship to residents of the breakaway territories and provided economic support.

The U.S., European Union and the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a peacekeeping mission in Georgia, are sending envoys to Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, to seek a cease-fire, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement late yesterday. France, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, earlier called on behalf of the EU for negotiations to end the fighting.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Beijing at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 9, 2008 05:16 EDT