Bush hails Georgia as 'beacon of liberty'

US President George Bush yesterday told a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of Georgians that they were proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.

"Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth," Mr Bush said in his speech from Tbilisi's Freedom Square.

"You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty. And because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world."

Freedom Square is where hundreds of thousands gathered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 and again last year when protests ousted Eduard Shevardnadze from office.

Mr Bush spoke to a massive crowd that filled the square - known as Lenin Square during Soviet rule - and spilled out into roads around the plaza.

He hoped the speech would balance his presence a day earlier at a Second World War victory celebration in Moscow's Red Square and close his four-nation trip on a high note.

Estimates of the crowd size varied widely, from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said it was by far the largest gathering ever in the country, and it was certainly one of the largest Mr Bush has ever addressed.

Mr Saakashvili, who led the Rose Revolution in 2003 that overthrew a corrupt government, praised Bush as "a leader who has contributed as much to the cause of freedom as any man of our time".

Mr Saakashvili was elected president in a landslide 96% of the vote in January 2004 after leading mass street protests against a fraudulent election.

Ukraine's Orange Revolution that forced the defeat of a Moscow-backed candidate followed last year. Then Kyrgyzstan saw a popular uprising this year against an authoritarian regime.

Mr Bush was eager to link his support for pro-Western democrats in the former Soviet Union with his policy in the Middle East.

"In recent months, the world has marvelled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to Bishkek. But before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia," Mr Bush said.

In a line that appeared to be directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Bush declined to support the bid of two separatist regions aligned with Moscow to gain independence from Georgia.

"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected ... by all nations," he said.

The buildings around the square were freshly painted for Bush's visit, the first from a US president, and hundreds of people dressed in red, white and blue stood in a human formation of the US flag, with another group forming the red and white Georgian flag.

But the visit was not without its dissenters. Violence in separatist regions, military campaigns against terrorists and the recent abductions of foreigners presented security challenges that required Mr Bush to deliver his open-air speech from a podium surrounded by a bullet-proof screen with sharpshooters on rooftops around the square.

And in the crowd was something that would have been unthinkable before independence - a sign of protest. In black letters, written on sheet, "US in Azerbaijan - Profits or Principle," a reference to American interest in the energy-rich nation that borders Georgia on the south.