Tbilisi - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was en route to Tbilisi on Friday, as Russia's military continued to occupy two Georgian provinces despite a ceasefire agreement obliging them to leave.

Rice was set to meet with members of the Georgian leadership to discuss the implementation of a ceasefire plan for the region, and humanitarian aid to Georgia being delivered by the US Air Force and Navy.

US President George W. Bush's decision to send Georgia support aboard US military aircraft and warships has turned the Ossetia conflict into an clear face-off between the Kremlin and Washington, despite claims by both sides they only want peace in the region.

Berlin - The conflict between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia is to top the agenda when German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to the Black Sea resort of Sochi Friday for talks with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, German media reported.

The row over the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would be the "sole theme of the meeting," the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said, even though the meeting had been planned well before the simmering conflict erupted into open warfare.

Amsterdam - International human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HWR) told international media on Friday it has evidence RTL television cameraman Stan Storimans was killed by Russian cluster bombs, despite an international ban on such bombs.

Storimans was killed in the Georgian city of Gori while reporting about the conflict over South Ossetia between Georgia and Russia.

Two other journalists, Dutch Jeroen Akkermans and Israeli Zadok Yehezkeli, sustained injuries in the same incident.

HRW says it spoke with several eye witnesses and documented video and photo material of the damage caused by the bombing that killed seven.

In May, more than 100 countries banned the use of cluster bombs at a convention in Ireland.

Washington - The blame game between Russia and Georgia over who started the war and who continues to inflict more damage continued Friday, as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev sparred with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on CNN.

Georgia may blame Russia for the conflict in South Ossetia, but "there is no doubt" that Georgia provoked the clash, Gorbachev told CNN's Larry King.

He said that Russia moved additional troops into South Ossetia to counter the "barbaric assault" of Georgia on the city of Tskhinvali.

Tbilisi - Russia has used cluster bombs during its incursion this week into Georgian territory, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleged.

In a statement issued early Friday from Tbilisi, HRW condemned the practise, which it claimed to have documented from airstrikes Tuesday in two Georgian cities.

"Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, HRW senior military analyst.

Taipei - Taiwan should learn a lesson from the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus and beware of a similar situation with China, a Taiwanese political analyst said Friday.

"Georgia's tragedy is a warning for Taiwan. Georgia sees a Russia which wants to regain its past power. Taiwan sees a China which has already risen," political analyst Antonio Chiang said in his column in the Apple Daily.

"Every now and then, thug leaders pick out a weakling and knock his head against the wall, to remind others who is in charge," he wrote in an article entitled, A Small but Smart War.