The International Olympic Committee said yesterday it was saddened at the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia as their countries' teams marched at the Games opening ceremony.

Russian forces battled Georgian troops in Georgia's breakaway provinces, sparking alarm in the West. The president of the separatist region said 1,400 people had been killed.

Each side blamed the other for fighting in the pro-Moscow enclave of South Ossetia, which broke from Georgia as the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.