TBILISI (AFP) -- President Mikheil Saakashvili on Friday rejected criticism of Georgia's August attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia, saying it was necessary to ensure the security of his country.

""Yes, we decided to undertake military actions in Tskhinvali,"" he said in testimony before a parliamentary probe into the conflict, referring to the South Ossetian capital.""We took this decision, it was a difficult decision that any responsible government would have taken to ensure the security of its citizens,"" he said.Saakashvili has in recent weeks come under mounting criticism at home and abroad for his decision to send in troops, only to see them routed by Russian forces.Saakashvili said the decision was taken after nearby Georgian villages came under ""heavy bombardment"" from South Ossetia and from the vicinity of Russian peacekeeping positions in the region.He said ""hundreds of (Russian) tanks and heavy vehicles"" were on the border with Georgia and there was clear evidence that they had already started moving into the country on the August night that Tbilisi launched the attack.""Under these conditions, if you ask me whether Georgia had to undertake military actions against these firing positions, the answer is yes,"" Saakashvili said.A senior Russian military official rejected Saakashvili's accusation that Russian forces were already on Georgian soil when Tbilisi launched the attack.Saakashvili's appearance came after Erosi Kitsmarishvili, Georgia's former envoy to Russia, claimed before the commission this week that Tbilisi had been planning assaults on South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, for months.Kitsmarishvili, who was ambassador to Moscow in the months before the war, also alleged that senior officials in Tbilisi believed they had received a green light from Washington to launch an assault.Saakashvili denied this during his testimony, saying: ""We did not seek a green light from anyone.""The decision was taken by us independently, without asking for permission from anyone,"" he said.Kitsmarishvili resumed his attacks on the government Friday, telling journalists that Georgian authorities could have avoided the war but failed.Russian troops and tanks poured into Georgia on August 8 to repel the Georgian move on South Ossetia, which had received extensive backing from Moscow for years.Russian forces occupied swathes of the country, but later withdrew to within South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognized as independent states.In a conference call with journalists later, Saakashvili insisted that the United States was still pushing for Georgia to join the NATO military alliance, despite the U.S. dropping support for a membership plan.""The Americans are pushing even harder than in April,"" Saakashvili said, in reference to the alliance summit earlier this year when NATO leaders refused to grant Georgia and Ukraine a Membership Action Plan (MAP) despite U.S. lobbying.""Hopefully we can get some kind of compromise where Georgia and Ukraine will continue to progress towards membership,"" he said. ""How we get membership... is secondary.""Tbilisi had hoped to be granted MAP at a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels next week, but on Wednesday U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the plan was off the table for both Georgia and Ukraine.Analysts say the U.S. has cooled its support amid opposition not just from Russia but also from Germany and France.