TOULON, August 12, 2008 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, set off Tuesday for Moscow and then Tbilisi in a bid to halt the fighting in Georgia, officials said.

He left around 7:38 a.m. (0538 GMT) from Toulon city, on the French Mediterranean coast near where he has been on summer holiday.

Sarkozy was first to see Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and then Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, amid a conflict that began over South Ossetia but now sees Russian troops pushing deeper inside Georgia.