BRUSSELS (Agencies) -- Foreign ministers from the EU's 27 member states will gather for an emergency meeting early next week to discuss measures to help settle the conflict in South Ossetia, EU diplomatic sources said on Sunday, RIA Novosti reportd.

The emergency meeting of the EU diplomats, proposed by France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is expected to take place in Paris or Brussels, the EU diplomatic sources said.
France earlier urged the conflicting sides to immediately end armed hostilities and start negotiations to find a political solution, and called on Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.
Georgia shelled the capital of South Ossetia on Monday, a Russian news agency said, while Tbilisi said dozens of Russian bombers were attacking Georgia, Reuters reported.
U.S. President George W. Bush denounced Moscow's ""disproportionate response"" to the South Ossetian crisis and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner began a mission to Tbilisi and Moscow to promote a peace plan designed in Paris.
The new crisis in the Caucasus has triggered alarm in the West, which gets much of its oil from a pipeline running through Georgia, and led to Cold War-style clashes at the United Nations. Oil prices rose again on Monday after a recent retreat from record levels, with crude topping $116 a barrel.
Sounds of explosions rocked the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, now controlled by Russian troops. Soldiers said several Russian peacekeepers were killed in the Georgian shelling.
Interfax news agency quoted South Ossetian spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva as saying the Georgians had fired Katyusha rockets killing 3 Russian peacekeepers and wounding 18. There was no independent confirmation of the casualties.
Georgia said up to 50 Russian fighter jets attacked Georgia overnight.
""Several dozen Russian bombers are in the Georgian skies and have been attacking throughout the country over the past several hours,"" the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Georgia offered Moscow a ceasefire and peace talks on Sunday, and said it had pulled its troops back from South Ossetia. Russia demands an unconditional Georgian withdrawal.
On his final day at the Beijing Olympics, Bush, who has been a big supporter of Georgia's pro-Western leader, said he had spoken firmly to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the crisis.
""I was very firm with Vladimir Putin ... I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia,"" Bush told NBC Sports. ""We strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia.""
Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating presidency in the European Union, arrived for talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili on a mission to try to end the four-day-old war.
After meeting the pro-Western Saakashvili, Kouchner said a ""controlled withdrawal of troops"" was his main priority.
""Coming back to the table, negotiations, peace talks, a political solution. That's it. Easy to say, very difficult to do,"" Kouchner told journalists in Tbilisi.
Russian troops and tanks took control of Tskhinvali, the region's devastated capital, on Sunday after a three-day battle. Moscow said 2,000 civilians were killed and thousands made homeless in a ""humanitarian catastrophe.""
The simmering conflict between Russia and its small, former Soviet neighbor erupted on Thursday when Georgia sent forces into South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s.
The West views Georgia as a valuable, if volatile, ally because of its strategic location on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to Europe.
Relations between Russia and Georgia have been at a low ebb because of Saakashvili's pro-western policies and his drive to take his country into NATO -- anathema to Moscow.
At the UN, U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad suggested Russia was seeking ""regime change"" by saying Saakashvili should leave office. Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin obliquely suggested some leaders became ""obstacles"" to their people.
Saakashvili appeared smiling but disheveled to meet Kouchner on Sunday night, before showing him the night-time view of Tbilisi from a hillside.
""It is the most surreal world crisis I could ever imagine,"" the Georgian leader told reporters.
A Reuters photographer entering Tskhinvali with Russian troops on Sunday saw dead Georgian soldiers lying in the streets and the ruins of buildings devastated in the fighting.
A Georgian government source said on Sunday 130 Georgian civilians and military personnel had been killed and 1,165 wounded, many because of Russian bombing inside Georgia. Russia denies hitting civilian targets.