Cease-fire proposed as Russia bombs Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia's president says he has signed an international-brokered proposal for a cease-fire with Russia in their conflict over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

President Mikheil Saakashvili said Monday that the proposal would be taken to Moscow by the French and Finnish foreign ministers.

"We are trying to stop this as soon as possible," Saakashvili said during a conference call with Western journalists.

Saakashvili said that Georgian troops had downed "18 or 19" Russian warplanes, killed hundreds of Russian troops and repelled a Russian assault on the Georgian city of Gori.

He later said in a television broadcast that the conflict was similar to the Balkans war in the 1990s and accused Russia of ethnic cleansing -- a charge the Russians have repeatedly leveled at Georgia.

Saakashvili claimed Russia had 500 tanks and 25,000 troops inside Georgia. the rest

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