U.S. President George W. Bush gave backing on Tuesday to ex-Soviet Georgia in its efforts to regain sovereignty over two pro-Moscow separatist regions, as long as it was done peacefully. But, at a joint news conference in the mountainous Caucasus state, Bush avoided support for Georgia in a bitter dispute with the Kremlin over Russian bases on its soil, with remarks likely to have disappointed his host, President Mikhail Saakashvili, Reuters said. Bush was on a 24-hour visit to Georgia, following trips to Latvia, the Netherlands and Russia, where on Monday he joined Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and over 50 other world leaders to mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Saakashvili, who came to power on the back of a "people power" revolution more than a year ago, has said the return of rebel regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Tbilisi control were vital for his country to recover from years of economic decline. "This is a dispute that has got to be resolved by the Georgian government and by the folks in the separatist regions. The United States cannot impose a solution nor would you want us to," Bush said. The Caucasus is home to a string of local conflicts arising from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia borders Russia's troubled province of Chechnya and is on the route for a U.S.-backed pipeline linking Caspian Sea oilfields to world markets. --More 1208 Local Time 0908 GMT
