US Vice President Dick Cheney says Russia has cast doubt on its reliability as an international partner with an illegitimate attempt to change Georgia's borders.
'After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy,' Mr Cheney told reporters at a joint news briefing in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
'We are doing so again as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory and an illegitimate unilateral attempt to change your country's borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world,' Mr Cheney said.
'Russia's actions have cast grave doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner - not just in Georgia but across this region and, indeed, throughout the international system,' he added.
He also said the US is fully committed to Georgia's bid for membership of the NATO alliance.
'America is fully committed to Georgia's Membership Action Plan for NATO and to its eventual membership in the alliance,' Mr Cheney said.
Mr Cheney's visit comes a day after the US boosted aid for the country.
The visit aims to demonstrate US backing for strategic countries in the region as relations with Russia sink to a post-Cold War low, and Washington bids to form new energy alliances to offset Moscow's oil and gas dominance.
The trip marks the highest level visit by a US official to Georgia since the country fought a five-day war last month with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. It is also Mr Cheney's first ever visit to Tbilisi.
After talks with Mr Saakashvili, the US vice president is to visit US aid operations in Georgia, a day after promising that Washington had a deep and abiding interest in the region's security.
His tour is to highlight US President George W Bush's announcement of a €690m aid package for its embattled ally, and shore up the US-Georgian alliance after Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev described the Georgian leader as a political corpse.
The US has taken a lead role supporting Georgia since hostilities erupted last month over Moscow-backed rebel regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Russia has since recognised as independent.
Mr Cheney started his tour in oil-rich Azerbaijan, touting common interest in energy security and noting that even though parts of the trip were planned earlier, his talks with Azerbaijan President Ilyham Aliyev took place 'in the shadow of the recent Russian invasion of Georgia'.
Recalling how he and Mr Aliyev 'met some years in the past when we were both in the energy business,' Mr Cheney vowed that 'The United States has a deep and abiding interest in your well being and security'.
Conflict cost Georgia €2bn - study
After talks with chiefs of oil companies in the region, Mr Cheney pressed for more routes for energy exports, in a reference to oil and gas pipelines in the works that would avoid going through Russia, but offered no details on whether any new deals were struck.
'Together with the nations of Europe, including Turkey, we must work with Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia on additional routes for energy exports that ensure the free flow of resources,' Mr Cheney said.
Mr Cheney's tour of Georgian relief operations is certain to anger Russia, whose Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned this week that Russia would react to a build-up of NATO naval forces in the Black Sea.
A NATO spokesman yesterday promised 'there is no NATO naval build-up in the Black Sea, only a temporary deployment of four ships participating in a training and interoperability exercise' off the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania.
The West has expressed outrage at Russia's military action and its recognition of the rebel regions, and NATO's chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer plans to visit Georgia later this month for further aid talks.
The EU also plans an international donors conference for Georgia and the International Monetary Fund announced it would come up with a €515m package for Georgia, if its executive board approves.
The conflict cost Georgia about €2bn, according to a new study by the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW).
Announcing the US aid package in Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: 'With our full support and the support of the entire free world, a democratic Georgia will survive, will rebuild and will thrive.'
Mr Bush will work with US lawmakers, who may have to approve the funds, to free up to €395m this year, with the remaining €295m coming later, she said.
The Georgian parliament yesterday formally lifted a state of war declared when the hostilities broke out, but Russia and Georgia closed down diplomatic exchanges.
Russia suspended visas for Georgian citizens and repeated that it would pull troops out of Georgia only when a French-brokered peace plan was fully implemented.
Moscow withdrew most of its forces under the ceasefire plan, but thousands of Russian troops that Moscow terms peacekeepers remain in the two rebel regions and in a buffer zone.
Mr Medvedev will seek backing for his country's intervention at a Moscow summit of seven ex-Soviet states tomorrow.
