(5 Jul 2010) SHOTLIST
No Slate at Start of Story
AUDIO AS INCOMING
1. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton getting out of vehicle and shaking hands with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili
2. Various of Clinton and Saakashvili walking into meeting, introductions
3. Both sides sitting down for meeting
4. Various of meeting
STORYLINE
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday, the final stop of a tour that began on Thursday in Ukraine and also took her to Poland, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Clinton met Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili for talks.
Earlier on Monday, Clinton pledged US support for Georgia, which is recovering from an August 2008 Russian military invasion and seeking to consolidate its democracy.
The Obama administration is trying to strike a balance between pressing the Russians to withdraw their forces from the breakaway Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and convincing the Georgian government that building up its military is not the right solution.
At the centre of the Russia-Georgia tensions is an effort by Moscow to reassert its influence in the region, to preserve what President Dmitry Medvedev calls a Russian zone of "privileged interest."
The US rejects the notion of a Russian sphere of influence.
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