The UN Security Council will meet today in the hopes of agreeing on the wording of an appeal for a cease-fire in the escalating conflict in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, diplomats said.

The 8.30 p.m. meeting will be the council's third emergency consultations on the crisis in as many days.

Belgium's UN Ambassador Jan Grauls has been speaking individually with members of the 15-nation council to get an agreement on a statement he hopes all of them can back. It was not immediately clear if Grauls had brokered a deal that would bridge the divisions on the council.

After listening to the Georgian and Russian envoys hurl accusations of "ethnic cleansing" at each other yesterday, the council remained deadlocked on the issue, with the United States and Britain firmly on Georgia's side against Russia and the vast majority of member states calling for a cease-fire.

Unofficial reports of casualties in South Ossetia and elsewhere in Georgia put the number of dead between 40 and about 2,000 since fighting erupted late on Thursday.

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