A convoy of Russian armored vehicles pictured outside Gori Tuesday.
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, speaking at the organization's headquarters in Geneva, said it would send workers to Tskhinvali, capital of the disputed region of South Ossetia, as well as bolster its presence in badly affected areas of Georgia.
Both Russia and Georgia have accused each other of ethnic cleansing during the conflict, which has centered on the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The Red Cross announcement came after discussions between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kellenberger.
Kellenberger said that the priority in South Ossetia would be to "restore contact between family members who have been separated by the conflict and to obtain information about people who remain unaccounted for," as well as "visit all those captured or detained in connection with the conflict to assess their treatment and living conditions."
He added that in Georgia the organization had already brought in more that 430 tonnes of food and other relief supplies for up to 25,000 people during the past week.
The conflict began when Georgia launched a large-scale attack on South Ossetia on August 7 after a week of what it said were separatist attacks on Georgian villages bordering the enclave. The next day Russia sent hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles across the international border, driving into Georgia from South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Watch residents of Georgian villages flee »
The civilian death toll from the conflict is unclear. Russia has said as many as 2,000 people were killed when Georgian forces cracked down on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, but Georgia said the death toll is in the hundreds.
The U.N. refugee agency estimates that nearly 160,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, from Georgia proper and South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia's deputy chief of staff of armed forces, said Wednesday that 64 of its soldiers died during fighting with Georgia, with another 323 wounded.
Meanwhile NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Tuesday that Russian forces were still inside Georgia, despite a European Union-brokered cease-fire agreement to withdraw -- and despite Moscow saying it had begun pulling out Monday.
"We do not see signals of this happening," Scheffer said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. "There can be no business as usual with Russia under the present circumstances."
A statement from the ministers said that NATO members "remain concerned by Russia's actions," the statement said, calling Russian military action "disproportionate."
But Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said NATO's accusations were "biased."
Lavrov said NATO was taking the side of Georgia, whose forces he said had failed to withdraw to their barracks.
"They blame us as if there were no requirements for the Georgian side in the six points" of the cease-fire agreement, he said. "I mean the requirements to bring back their troops to the places where they are on a permanent basis."
Speaking later in Tbilisi with British Foreign Secretary David Milliband, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called the NATO statement encouraging, saying Russians "are not and have never been after just small pieces of Georgian territory."
"They want to demoralize my people and put them into panic," Saakashvili said. "They want to not only get rid of the Georgian government but get rid of all idea of Georgia's independence and freedom." Watch Georgia react to NATO statement »
NATO plans to set up a NATO-Georgian Commission to oversee Georgia's relationship with the international alliance, supervise its bid to join the alliance and assist Tbilisi following the Russian invasion, Scheffer said.
A team of 50 NATO staff members will to go to Georgia to help assess the needs of the Georgian military, aid the resumption of air traffic and assist in the investigation of cyberattacks on the former Soviet republic's computer networks.
Hopes of resolving the crisis had been boosted earlier Tuesday when Georgia and Russia exchanged soldiers who had been captured during the fighting. Russia also agreed to a bigger monitoring mission for Georgia's disputed region of South Ossetia.
However, at the same time, Russian soldiers took 21 Georgian military police officers prisoner in the western Georgian port of Poti, Georgian interior ministry officials said.
Georgian officials said local police in Poti asked the military police to intercede when Russian forces entered the city and impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid. The Russian military, however, said its forces were picking up roving Georgian forces who have not returned to their bases.
The United States claims that Russia is trying to undermine the government of Saakashvili, who is pro-West and wants NATO to suspend all cooperation programs with Russia. Britain and several former Soviet republics support the idea, but other countries -- including France and Germany -- are less inclined to isolate Russia so aggressively.
The United States also wants Europe to cancel exchanges of personnel, lessen its energy dependence on Russia and postpone an EU-Russia summit scheduled for November.
A draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution being circulated Tuesday called for "full and immediate compliance with the cease-fire agreement to which the parties have subscribed" and the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces.
Russia, however, wields veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council, so it is unclear whether a resolution will pass. Watch problems facing U.N. Security Council resolution »
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the proposal "very strange," saying that previously discussed language would have required Georgian troops in the region to withdraw before Russian forces did.
He stopped short of specifically saying Russia would veto the proposed language but called pushing it "a waste of time."
The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Russia has agreed to allow it to send 20 observers to Tbilisi to supplement the nine already based in South Ossetia, with the aim of increasing the total to 100.
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