Bush arrives, visits old town

(9 May 2005) SHOTLIST

++SOUND AS INCOMING++

1. Shots of Air Force One landing on tarmac in Georgia
2. Air Force One taxing on runway
3. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and wife, Sandra Roelofs, walk out to greet Bush
4. Wide shot of Air Force One on tarmac
5. Shots of US President Bush and Laura Bush walking down stairs from Air Force One
6. President Saakashvili and wife greet George and Laura Bush they shake hands with people on tarmac
7. Shot of Georgian and US flags
8. Mid shot of Bush waving as he prepares to get into car
9. Wide shot of Bush getting into car
10. Georgian dancers performing on stage
11. Bush's motorcade arrives
12. Bush and Laura Bush get out of car, wave
13. Saakashvili talks to Bush
14. Dancers
15. Bush and Saakashvili walk toward dancers
16. Dancers
17. Wide shot of celebration
18. Bush and Laura Bush walk towards stage
19. Various shots of the Bushes and Saakashvili and his wife watching the dancing
20. Bush walks on stage and shakes hands with the performers

STORYLINE

US President George W Bush arrived in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia on Monday on a visit that Georgians hope will notch up the pressure on Russia to respect this young democracy on its doorstep.

Georgians want Russia to withdraw two bases from the Soviet era that it maintains on Georgian territory and to stop giving support to two separatist regions - issues that the US-educated president, Mikhail Saakashvili, is looking to the United States to promote.

Saakashvili and his Dutch-born wife, Sandra Roelofs, greeted Bush and First Lady Laura Bush at the airport, where Georgian and US flags fluttered under a grey sky.

The presidents and their wives then departed for a tour of Georgia's historic old town, a neighbourhood of rickety balconies, crooked streets and colourful bath houses.

Georgians have been frantically preparing for the visit, erecting giant welcoming billboards along the highway and coating ramshackle buildings with fresh paint.

Georgian dancers in traditional costumes and a male chorus performed for the president to the sound of rhythmic drums as a beaming Saakashvili and the US leader clapped their hands to the beat.

The welcoming ceremony was broadcast live on Georgian television, which has been promoting the visit nonstop for days.

The White House has said the trip, coming directly after Bush's visit to Moscow, is a chance to praise the rising pro-democracy sentiment in the former Soviet sphere - a movement that Georgians proudly claim to have started with their peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution that brought the pro-Western Saakashvili to power.

Georgia has declared its hope to someday join NATO and the European Union - two goals that are still far off for this nation of five (m) million, which remains wracked by separatism and whose people are still burdened by deep poverty.

Georgia has an uneasy relationship with its giant neighbour and main energy supplier, Russia, and Bush's visit is getting a near-universal welcome.

Many see the United States as the kind of powerful friend that Georgia needs as it manoeuvres out of Moscow's orbit.

Saakashvili refused Russia's invitation to attend Monday's Victory in Europe Day celebrations in Moscow to protest Russia's reluctance to withdraw its two military bases.

The Georgians have said the Russian troops are no longer welcome and are pushing for a quick pullout.

Bush noted the support Russia gave Georgia in its efforts to restore order to the Pankisi Gorge, an area that borders Chechnya, as a welcome sign of cooperation.






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