They kept a safe distance from the opposition he said of the

They kept a safe distance from the opposition,” he said of the United States.However, Mr Saakashvili does profess firm Western leanings, which could irritate Georgia’s neighbour, Russia. The project is heavily backed by the United States, and that has prompted speculation that Mr Saakashvili’s moves to oust Mr Shevardnadze were the result of manipulation by Washington Mr Saakashvili denies this “They never helped us as a political force. The US State Department said that Georgia’s presidential election marked a significant step forward in the development of democracy in the former Soviet republic.One of Georgia’s most promising economic prospects is the construction of an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, crossing through its territory. Georgia has a history of political violence, including two assassination attempts against Mr Shevardnadze. “We’ve assumed these risks by running for this office,” Mr Saakashvili saidIn a preliminary count of ballots from 57 of the country’s 75 electoral districts, Mr Saakashvili took 97.6 per cent of the vote against five minor candidates, the Georgian Central Election Commission chairman, Zurab Chiaberashvili, said on Monday. Election officials said the proportion was unlikely to change substantially when final results are released today.International observers said the voting, although marred by sporadic violations, was largely free and fair, in marked contrast to the fraudulent November parliamentary elections that led to the uprising against Shevardnadze. I promised him his physical security,” he said in an interview at the Krtsanisi presidential residence in the steep hills on the edge of the capital, Tbilisi.”It would be really incredible to do the same bad things, or worse,” he said of the 10 years of decline Georgia witnessed under Mr Shevardnadze.

Corruption, including the siphoning off of foreign aid and state assets falling into private hands, has weakened the country to the brink of collapse, and “the richest of them all was the Shevardnadze family”, Mr Saakashvili told the Associated Press. “I never promised Shevardnadze we would not take assets he misappropriated. The US-educated lawyer who won a landslide victory in Georgia’s presidential elections on Sunday has vowed to tackle corruption as his first act when he takes office later this month. And the man he ousted, Eduard Shevardnadze, and his family are among his targets.

The President-elect, Mikhail Saakashvili, 36, said his first move would be to push for “drastic anti-corruption legislation”. France said specially trained agents had been flying on some French flights to the US for some time, although the scale of the programme and the number of flights involved remained a matter of discussion with the American authorities.Airline operators in Germany and Canada said marshals had been travelling on some transatlantic flights since the 11 September attacks. Mexico, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand also offered broad support.British Airways flight 223 to Washington, which has been cancelled twice in the past week and has suffered lengthy delays, took off from Heathrow yesterday an hour and a half late.. The Government is expected to concede in the next few days that airline ground staff and stewards can also be told when a marshal is on board. But Mr Darling told MPs that for security reasons passengers would not be told.Other countries have been more supportive of the US initiative, announced over Christmas after an increase in the nation’s terror-alert status. As a result of a 90-minute meeting between pilots’ leaders and Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, cabin crews are expected to be told when sky marshals are on a plane and that pilots will remain in charge.The agreement is part of a “protocol” to be drawn up between the Government and the airline industry. The pilots also agreed to hold a “summit” with airlines to draw up an industry-wide agreement on the use of armed guards.