U.S. relief ship heads for Georgia, as Bush unveils aid package

TBILISI, Georgia - A U.S. Navy flagship loaded with relief supplies steamed through the Dardanelles on Wednesday en route to Georgia, as the Bush administration announced a $1 billion economic aid package for the former Soviet republic.

In Azerbaijan, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States had a "deep and abiding interest" in the region's stability. It was the first stop on a tour of three ex-Soviet republics that are wary of Russia's intentions after its war with Georgia last month.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said $570 million of the multiyear U.S. aid proposal will be made available in the remaining months of the Bush administration, though Congress will have to approve $200 million of that. That also leaves a sizable portion - $430 million - up to the budgeting discretion of next year's Congress and the new president.

"The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbor," Rice told reporters at the State Department in a simultaneous announcement with President Bush.

The dollar total is half the $2 billion a year the U.S. gives Israel, its largest aid recipient.

Also in tandem with Bush, the International Monetary Fund announced that it has agreed to lend Georgia $750 million for economic recovery.

A top Russian security official, meanwhile, accused Cheney of an ulterior motive: seeking to secure energy supplies in the South Caucasus in exchange for U.S. support.

Cheney, who was to arrive in Georgia today, met with U.S. Embassy officials and international oil executives before going to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev's residence on the Caspian Sea.

Cheney said the principle of territorial integrity was endangered today, noting that officials were meeting "in the shadow of the Russian invasion of Georgia."

He added that Bush had sent him with a clear message that the United States had a "deep and abiding interest" in the stability and security of countries in the region.

Azerbaijan has some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union.

The head of Russia's powerful presidential Security Council criticized Cheney's planned tour, saying his real goal was to trade U.S. support for energy supplies in the region and to make sure that those countries had governments sympathetic to Washington.

"Cheney, during his visits to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, will try to instill in them confidence that they will receive support of the U.S., and [he] will do it in such a way that the U.S. will continue to wield influence on them," Nikolai Patrushev said during a visit to neighboring Armenia.

The Russian consul in Georgia, meanwhile, said Russia closed its embassy there and has halted consular operations after Georgia severed diplomatic ties.

The diplomatic break follows the war between Georgia and Russia last month and Moscow's recognition of two separatist Georgia regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as independent nations.

The United States has already sent two military ships bearing aid to Georgia, and the USS Mount Whitney - the flagship of the Navy's 6th Fleet - steamed through the Dardanelles early Wednesday and passed through the Bosporus later in the day. The two Turkish-controlled straits link the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

One of the other U.S. ships, the USS McFaul, sailed back through the straits toward the Mediterranean late Monday.

The regional conflict began Aug. 7 after Georgia launched an assault to regain control of South Ossetia, a region supported by Russia. Russian forces swiftly repelled the offensive and drove deep into Georgia, whose pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili has angered Moscow by seeking NATO membership for the Caucasus nation.

Georgia straddles a major westward route for oil and gas from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea and has become the focus of a struggle for regional clout between Russia and the West.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament appealed to Russia to "honor all its commitments" to withdraw troops under a ceasefire agreement with Georgia.

Information for this article was contributed by Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili, Matthew Lee, Steve Gutterman, David Nowak, Mansur Mirovalev, Aida Sultanova, Jennifer Loven and Desmond Butler of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/04/2008

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