UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council began late Thursday night an emergency meeting at the request of Russia to discuss the escalating conflict in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

    Members of the 15-member body first huddled behind closed doors to discuss a Russia-drafted statement expressing "concern at the escalation of violence" before going into a public meeting that continued into the wee hours of Friday morning.

    The draft also called on "the parties to cease bloodshed without delay and renounce the use of force."

    Diplomats said that during the closed-door consultations, the council failed to reach an agreement on the Russian text because some council members, including the United States, opposed the part calling on the parties to "renounce the use of force."

    Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council that Moscow called the emergency session because of the "menacing situation around South Ossetia" and Georgia's "blatant aggressive actions" against South Ossetia.

    "The Security Council must call immediately for an end to hostilities and a rejection of the use of force," Churkin said.

    Churkin's Georgian counterpart, Irakli Alasania, said that Georgia's military action was "taken in self-defense after repeated armed provocations and with the sole goal of protecting civilian population and preventing further loss of lives."

    Alasania said the Georgian government took the action because the separatists in South Ossetia "not only defied the cease-fire but also sharply escalated violence."

    He said that Georgia stands ready to immediately begin peace talks aimed at resolving the conflict in the region, and called on the separatists to cease military action and come to the negotiating table.

    Britain's deputy ambassador Karen Pierce voiced regret at the council's failure to agree upon a statement on the issue.

    But the absence of a statement should not be taken as a sign that the Security Council is "unconcerned," she said, expressing hope that the council will be able to take a position in the following days.

    Georgian armed forces traded gunfire with militants of the breakaway region of South Ossetia near the regional capital Tskhinvali overnight to Friday, killing at least 15 people, news reports said.

    Georgian forces shelled Tskhinvali and 15 people were killed in the conflict, the Interfax news agency reported.