By Matt Robinson

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia called for international intervention on Monday and pulled its battered forces back to the capital, as Russian troops pushed deep into its territory, ignoring Western pleas to halt.

“The Georgian army is retreating to defend the capital. The Government is urgently seeking international intervention to prevent the fall of Georgia,” a Georgian statement said.

President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian forces had taken control of Georgia’s main east-west route, effectively bisecting the country. He urged Georgians to stay home and not panic.

Moscow snubbed a plea from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers for a ceasefire. It said Georgia had not kept a promise to halt fighting and was shelling the Russian-held region of South Ossetia where the conflict began last Thursday.

The fighting has unsettled oil markets because Georgia hosts a key pipeline supplying the West. It has alarmed investors in Russia and has raised fears of a wider conflagration in the volatile region bordering Iran, Turkey and Russia.

A feeling of uneasiness pervaded Tbilisi as for the first time in four nights, city streets were largely empty, with no evening demonstration by the president’s supporters.

“We are working with an international community, but all we got so far are just words, statements, moral support, humanitarian aid,” Saakashvili said in a televised address. “But we need more — we want them to stop this barbaric aggressor.”

The conflict erupted last Thursday when Georgia sent forces to retake South Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s and declared itself independent, albeit without international recognition.  Continued…