On Saturday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the chamber's foreign relations committee, visited Gori to observe the distribution of U.S. food aid.

Asked whether the United States was considering new military aid, Corker said "these subjects are part of a longer and mid-term discussion" when Congress reconvenes in September.

Russia supplies the EU with about a third of its oil and about two-fifths of its natural gas.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said European nations should adopt a united energy policy to avoid becoming too dependent on Russia.

He said the EU nations should "use our collective bargaining power."

"Without urgent action we risk sleepwalking into an energy dependance on less stable or reliable partners," Brown wrote in The Observer newspaper.

Brown said he spoke with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev by telephone Saturday, and told the Russian leader "to expect a determined European response" to the crisis.

Under a European Union-brokered cease-fire, both sides were to return their forces to pre-war positions, but Russia has interpreted one of the agreement's clauses as allowing it to set up 4-mile deep security zones, which are now marked by Russian checkpoints.

Refugees coming into Georgia from those zones say they are being terrorized, beaten and robbed by South Ossetians.

What a pic

It's so heartbreaking for all those poor refuges.