US/Italy Bush calls Berlusconi on Georgia crisis

United States President George W. Bush conferred by phone on Tuesday with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on the crisis in Georgia, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
The American president also spoke with the leaders of Britain, Germany, Poland and Lithuania.
Berlusconi is known to have a close, personal relationship with former Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister.
Italy on Monday said it was ready to take part in a European Union peacekeeping mission in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia if this serves to defuse tensions between Georgia and Russia.
Russia attacked Georgia last week after Georgian troops moved against separatist South Ossetia.
The region has had de facto independence from Georgia since 1992, since when Russian peace-keeping troops have been present.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, met Tuesday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin in an attempt to broker a solution to the crisis between Moscow and Tbilisi.
He next travels to the Georgian capital to meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Russia on Tuesday suspended its five-day offensive and President Medvedev told Russian TV that Georgia had been ''punished enough'' for attacking South Ossetia.
Both Ossetia and the nearby Georgian province of Abkhazia want to break away from Georgia and join the Russian Federation.