Georgia Vote Winner Plans First Trip to U.S.

Georgia's Bidzina Ivanishvili said Thursday he had a plan but no date to make Washington his first foreign destination should he become prime minister as expected.

The announcement seemed designed to discredit claims that Ivanishvili, who is tipped to become premier after winning parliamentary polls on Monday, was working on behalf of Russia, a longtime foe which defeated Georgia in a brief 2008 war.

Ivanishvili on Wednesday described the United States as Georgia's "main partner and friend".

A spokeswoman for the billionaire, whose Georgian Dream alliance shocked the ruling party of staunch U.S. ally President Mikheil Saakashvili, said a visit to Washington was still in the planning stages.

"His first foreign visit will be to Washington. It is premature to speak about timing and other details," spokeswoman Maya Panjikidze told Agence France Presse.

Ivanishvili said Washington had "invested a lot in the development of democratic institutions in Georgia".

"During all this time -- before, during, and after the elections -- the Americans played the decisive role, they took a very principled position," he said in an interview with the Russian edition of Forbes magazine.

Ivanishvili says he wants to restore relations with Russia but also continue the bid for membership of NATO which was a central focus of Saakashvili's policy and infuriated the Kremlin.

"It is often heard that NATO and Russia are incompatible, but I think that we will manage to find points of contact and to prove that it is not impossible," Ivanishvili told Russia's Forbes.

"I never met (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or (Prime Minister Dmitry) Medevedev in person, but I think that I must do everything to establish friendly relations with Russia," he said.

Putin and Medvedev have refused to speak to Saakashvili since a war in which Georgia lost two Moscow-backed rebel territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, where Russia has since stationed thousands of troops.

Moscow had cautiously welcomed this week's opposition victory, saying it could open the possibility of renewed dialogue with Tbilisi.

But the Russian foreign ministry said there were as yet no plans to invite Ivanishvili to Moscow.

"I would leave this as an open question. They are still tallying up all the votes," said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

"We will see how the leadership is configured, who is going to act and how, and then we will draw some conclusions," he said.

Ivanishvili made his estimated $6.4 billion fortune in Russia but sold his holdings there before the elections amid allegations that his bid was a Kremlin project aimed at undermining Georgia's ambitions to join NATO and the EU.