'Sanctions are being considered, and many other means' at next Monday's meeting in Brussels, said Mr Kouchner, whose country holds the European Union presidency.

It was the first time that Paris evoked the possibility of sanctions against Moscow.

'We are trying to draw up a strong text showing our desire not to accept' the situation in Georgia, he told reporters, adding that he did not want to 'prefigure' what the sanctions might be.

Russia slammed back saying discussions in the European Union on imposing sanctions are the product of a 'sick imagination' and Western confusion, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

'Apart from that my friend Kouchner also said that we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea ... But that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well,' Mr Lavrov told reporters in the Tajik capital.

'I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion,' he said.

Russia is facing an avalanche of condemnation from the West over its decision to recognise the independence of two Georgian secessionist regions at the heart of the conflict that erupted in the ex-Soviet republic this month.

Moscow has reacted angrily to Western criticism, saying it fails to recognise that Moscow used military force only in response to a Georgian attack against South Ossetia, where tens of thousands of Russian citizens live. -- AFP/REUTERS