Once again, this is not looking good. I have no bone to pick with Georgia, I just worry this could lead to a regional conflict. Background here. More below. Channel News Asia:

Georgia admitted for the first time that its troops were on the offensive in South Ossetia and said they were poised to seize the entire rebel province after fierce fighting left dead and wounded on both sides.

"We took control of various strategic heights (in South Ossetia)," President Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

Saakashvili said Thursday that the hills captured by Georgian forces "really have strategic significance" and their possession would allow the troops "to quickly take control of the whole territory".

Georgia previously said that fighting involving its troops -- officially peacekeepers -- was limited to defensive return of fire in response to attacks. Saakashvili's remarks were the first admission that they had seized territory.

The 36-year-old Georgian leader, backed by the West in his drive to reassert control over the entirety of a country that splintered after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, said he would return the land only as part of a peace deal.

"We are prepared to hand over this territory to the peacekeepers," Saakashvili said.

The peacekeeping force currently deployed in the region includes troops from Georgia, South Ossetia and Russia. But Tbilisi has accused the Russian forces of bias in favor of the separatists and has called for their withdrawal.

The dispute has become a major sore point in relations between Georgia and Russia, which seeks to retain its historic influence in the volatile Caucasus and which eyes US intentions in its own strategic backyard with deep suspicion.

Reports of dead and wounded in the fighting Thursday fluctuated throughout the day. Georgian officials announced that three Georgian servicemen had been killed and 10 wounded. South Ossetian officials said four South Ossetian civilians had died in the fighting.

A Georgian official also said eight Cossacks -- ethnic Russians who have fought wars in the Caucasus since Tsarist times -- fighting in the ranks of the rebel forces were killed.

South Ossetian officials denied that claim and Georgia did not produce the bodies for independent verification. If confirmed however, it would provide proof of involvement, albeit unofficial, by Russian irregulars in the conflict.

South Ossetia falls within Georgian borders but is inhabited mainly by ethnic Ossetians. The adjacent province of North Ossetia, also dominated by Ossetians, is part of Russia. South Ossetia has demanded either independence or rule from Moscow.

Saakashvili, a US-trained lawyer elected in January after leading a bloodless revolution that forced the resignation of his predecessor, Eduard Shevardnadze, has vowed to restore the unity of Georgia.

In June, he successfully brought another pro-Russian breakaway region, Adjara, back under the authority of Tbilisi and forced its independence-minded leader to flee to exile in Moscow.

But that move, and the current campaign in South Ossetia, has stoked anger among Russian nationalists, who believe their country has a right to some measure of control over parts of Georgia.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the conflict in South Ossetia was the result of a "stupid decision" by Georgia's parliament in the early 1990s to revoke the autonomous status the region enjoyed during Soviet times.

But the speaker of Georgia's parliament dismissed the comment.

"I wouldn't even like to respond to Putin in the tone that he used," speaker Nino Burjanadze said.

Russia on Thursday warned Georgia of not using force in settling its breakaway province of South Ossetia, saying such attempts are "impermissible."

"Tbilisi should realize that such attempts are impermissible," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

"Georgia has begun military actions, the bloodiest and more large-scale ones that upset the latest agreement," the statement noted.

"Tough measures must be applied to those who have purposefully gone about violating existing agreements and understandings, and it is necessary to return to the sphere of law," the statement said.

Russia's warn came after Georgia claimed earlier on Thursday that its troops had seized some strategic heights around breakawaySouth Ossetia's main city of Tskhinvali.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters in the capital Tbilisi that Georgia is ready to transfer control over these heights the joint peacekeeping force in an attempt to bring about peace in the region.

"The elevated areas, which have been seized today, enable us to regroup forces in the conflict zone, but we will not do that for the sake of peace," Saakashvili was quoted by Interfax news agencyas saying.

The proposal "is the last chance for peace," he added.

A joint peacekeeping contingent composed of Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian troops have been patrolling the conflict zone between Georgia and South Ossetia since 1992 when South Ossetia won de-facto independence after defeating Georgia in a bloody war.

Georgia accuses Russia of backing the two renegade regions while Russia has called for the settlement of the crisis by peaceful means.

Fighting continued into the sixth straight day between Georgianand South Ossetian troops in contravention of a ceasefire agreement reached on Aug. 13.

Georgian officials said that their troops had killed eight Cossack fighters in capturing the hills.

They also said that three Georgian servicemen were killed in last night fighting.

South Ossetia has refused to bow to the Georgian government and sought to integrate into the neighboring Russia despite Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's pledge to reunited the country by taking the region and another breakaway republic, Abkhazia, back under central control.

The simmering tensions between Tbilisi and South Ossetia erupted in late May when Saakashvili briefly sent troops into the region.

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