Pat Dollard | Young Americans

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - The United States advised all its citizens to leave Georgia on Tuesday as officials said they had been unable to confirm an end to Russian military operations in the country.

Despite a statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that hostilities were ending, the the White House said it could not confirm that and Georgia cast doubt on Medvedev’s announcement, saying Russian fighter jets had bombed two Georgian villages.

“We saw the reporting and the announcement from the Russian president, Medvedev,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “We’re trying to get an assessment of what exactly it means, what a halt means and whether it’s taken place.”

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the situation was still unclear. “We don’t know what the Russians are doing. We want them to stop the attacks,” Wood told reporters.

The United States was working diplomatically to try to halt “plain and simple blatant aggression on the part of Russia” and return to the situation that existed before the fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia began last week, Wood said.

In the Georgian capital, U.S. envoy Matthew Bryza called Russia’s announcement ending military action “extremely positive,” but said it seemed elements of Moscow’s military wanted to continue limited action against Georgia.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cut short a holiday to return to Washington to deal with the crisis, which began last Thursday when Georgia sent forces to retake South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s. Moscow responded by sending its troops into Georgia.

U.S. officials said they believed about one thousand American citizens were living in Georgia before the fighting began, but they had been advised to leave now.

“In light of the continued aerial bombings of civilian and military targets in several areas of the country, the Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer nonessential travel to Georgia and recommends that all U.S. citizens depart Georgia,” a travel advisory from the State Department said.

About 170 private U.S. citizens have left Georgia in official convoys and another 100 are ready to go, the State Department said.

The U.S. embassy in Tbilisi, the capital, will remain open and Bryza will remain in Georgia, Wood said.

He rejected Russian pressure for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to depart.

“The Georgian people are the ones who should determine the future of the president. That’s not for us, it’s not for the Russians to determine,” Wood said.

U.S. military officials said efforts were under way to identify assets that could be used to provide aid to Georgia if requested but they were not aware of any specific plans to deliver aid at the moment.