Civil Georgia, Georgia
April 12 2005

Saakashvili Ready to Meet Bagapsh in Tbilisi During U.S. President’s
Visit

MP Givi Targamadze told reporters, after talks with U.S. Department
of State Senior Negotiator for Nagorno-Karabakh and Eurasian
Conflicts on Steven Mann on April 12, that `Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili is ready to meet Sergey Bagapsh [President of
breakaway Abkhazia] and Eduard Kokoity [leader of breakaway South
Ossetia] in Tbilisi during the visit of [U.S. President] George Bush
to Georgia’ on May 10.

This statement immediately triggered speculations that Ambassador
Mann, who held talks with the Abkhaz leadership in Sokhumi on April
11, invited the breakaway region’s President to travel to Tbilisi
during the U.S. President’s visit. Mann, however, said that his visit
to Sokhumi had nothing in common with the U.S. President’s planned
trip to Georgia.