U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg...

President Mikheil Saakashvili has recently offered Georgia"s Black Sea ports to NATO military supply ships and its airports as refueling points for NATO cargo planes en route to Afghanistan.

"The president did mention his offer. I indicated [to] him that really this was something that needed to be discussed with [the] Pentagon," Steinberg said on Friday after his meeting with Saakashvili in Tbilisi.

"The question is what their demands and needs are. I encouraged him and his administration to talk with the relevant people on preparing our various logistic needs to support the effort in Afghanistan," he said.

Tbilisi believes that the proposed transit route from Romania via the Black Sea, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan would boost global as well as its national and regional security and will be less expensive than the existing corridor through Russia.

Georgia"s desire to join NATO has been central to Saakashvili"s foreign policy since he

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