THE HAGUE - GEORGIA accused Russia on Monday of a long-running and continuing campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' in its territory, urging the UN's highest court to order an urgent halt to the alleged abuses.

US to delay nuclear pact with Russia WASHINGTON - THE United States will announce on Monday that it is pulling a US-Russia civilian nuclear pact from consideration by the US congress for now because of Moscow's actions in Georgia, a US official said. The decision will come 'today' and 'delays' the accord, but 'we can review later to see if we want to resubmit' the agreement for approval by the US Congress, the official said on condition of anonymity. -- AFP

But Russia defended its actions before the International Court of Justice, saying a Georgian assault on the rebel region of South Ossetia had left it no choice but to send in troops.

Teams of lawyers for the two countries appeared before a 15-member panel of judges in The Hague on Monday.

The arguments were part of a Georgian request for interim protection measures against alleged rights abuses by Russia in the ongoing showdown over South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

'This case is about the ethnic cleansing of Georgians and other minorities in Georgian territory,' Mr James Crawford argued for Georgia.

Added his colleague Mr Payam Akhavan: 'The ethnic Georgian populations are now isolated and the Georgian government has no means of protecting them. The ethnic-based boundaries of the separatist republics are being literally burnt onto the map.'

But Mr Roman Kolodkin, for Russia, told judges on the first of three days of argument that 'my country had no other choice but to become involved'.

'I wish to stress that it was not Russia that launched the armed activities,' he said.

On the night of August 7, Georgia had launched a 'massive armed assault' on South Ossetia, Mr Kolodkin said.

'It immediately resulted in numerous casualties. This attack left (Russia) no other option but to launch a military response ... to prevent further deaths.'

Russia challenged the court's jurisdiction to hear the case, and asked it to dismiss the Georgian application.

Russian troops entered Georgia last month to push back Georgian forces attempting to regain control of South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed region that broke away from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

Russia halted its offensive after five days but did not withdraw all its troops from Georgian territory. It has since recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Georgia wants an order from the court to stop Russia from committing what it calls ethnic violence against its citizens and to allow the return of refugees to South Ossetia, Abkhazia and adjacent 'occupied' areas.

As French President Nicolas Sarkozy led an EU delegation to Moscow Monday to convince Russia to withdraw troops from Georgia, lawyers claimed before the ICJ that violence against ethnic Georgians continued despite a ceasefire.

More than 150,000 Georgians became internally displaced in the last month, said Crawford.

Georgia's First Deputy Minister of Justice Tina Burjaliani said Russia was using racial hatred and violence as instruments of subjugation.

'Georgia still lives under the shadow of a vastly more powerful neighbour (pursuing) a policy of divide and conquer ... that has brought great suffering to its victims,' she said.

The first European diplomats to be allowed into a Russian-controlled buffer zone near South Ossetia expressed concerns Sunday about 'possible ethnic cleansing'.

But Russia's ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council Valery Loshchinin hit back Monday with accusations of ethnic cleansing against Georgia.

The Russian military intervention had been aimed solely at preventing a 'humanitarian catastrophe", he claimed in remarks to the council in Geneva.

Georgia instituted proceedings against Russia before the ICJ on August 12, accusing Moscow of breaches of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

As it can take months for the court to decide whether or not to entertain the case, Georgia then brought another application on a more urgent basis asking for interim protection measures.

It is this matter that will occupy the court for the next three days, with a decision expected within weeks. -- AFP