(BRUSSELS) - The United States on Wednesday called on NATO to hold an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels next week to discuss the crisis in Georgia, a NATO spokeswoman said.

"Washington this morning asked the organisation to hold a NATO foreign ministers' meeting, and consultations are underway to organise one at the beginning of next week," spokeswoman Carmen Romero told AFP.

The meeting is planned to take place in the Belgian capital next Tuesday.

A NATO spokeswoman said all 26 NATO member were bring consulted on the proposal and a final decision on holding such a meeting would be taken later in the day.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "asked for the meeting for Tuesday and we will be there," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

"Secretary Rice asked for a meeting of the NATO foreign ministers early next week, as an opportunity to consult with her counterparts about the implications of the Russian military actions in Georgia," the US mission to NATO said.

Polish Foreign Secretary Radoslaw Sikorski said he had held phone talks with his British counterpart David Miliband as well as Rice, giving Poland's support to the initiative.

"The meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NATO's top decision-making body) signifies that this matter in Georgia is serious, that the attention of the whole world is focused on that country," he said.

Meanwhile the United States announced it was cancelling joint military exercises with Russia, in its first concrete response to the armed conflict in Georgia, as it considered a range of options to respond to the aggression.

"In the wake of this conflict, there is no way that we can proceed with this joint exercise at this time," said a senior US defence official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

NATO nations on Tuesday condemned Russia's "excessive, disproportionate use of force," at an ambassadorial-level meeting in Brussels.

The Alliance's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters then that NATO had not backed away from its position that Georgia should one day join the alliance.

"Georgia is a respected partner and friend and one day Georgia will join NATO," he said.

Some other member states have also stressed that it can no longer be "business as usual" with Russia, with one possibility being to end its partner status.

US NATO ambassador Kurt Volker said many of the 26 NATO nations said the Georgian conflict had opened a serious rift with Russia.

"There can't be business as usual when an open conflict is going on in a territory that is a partner of NATO with Russia involved," he added.

Russia failed in a bid to arrange a Russia-NATO council meeting on Tuesday while the NATO ambassador did meet with the Georgian envoy to the Alliance in Brussels.

At that meeting, the envoy asked NATO for military help, particularly after Georgia's radar system was hit by Russian attacks.

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