TBILISI, Feb 11 (AFP) - Georgia's prime minister-elect promised to keep his turbulent former Soviet republic on the path of reform after the sudden death of his predecessor Zurab Zhvania, in a Russian newspaper interview Friday.
"We will pursue Zhvania's policies. Our program will hardly differ from the one that he presented to parliament in December," Zurab Nogaideli told the Izvestia daily.
The new prime minister, due to be confirmed in office by parliament later on Friday, stressed that he had participated "in the majority of the government's decisions" in the economic sphere as finance minister.
He said the new Western leadership in Georgia had put the impoverished country on the right track and his role would be to "cement definitively the success the country enjoyed in 2004" and to "establish a strategic development plan for the next three to five years."
In 2001, Nogaideli was appointed finance minister under Georgia's former president Eduard Shevardnadze but was fired in a personality clash.
He worked in private business until the "rose revolution" of November 2003, when Saakashvili came to power on the back of a popular movement against former leader Eduard Shevardnadze. Nogaideli was then re-appointed finance minister.
The new prime minister said his priority would be to "pursue the deregulation of the economy and reduce the state's role" through new privatizations.
Nogaideli, however, cautioned that the government could not achieve success in its goals without restoring "the territorial integrity" of the country, which has no control over two breakaway pro-Russian republics, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The prime minister indicated that he would work "peacefully and through economic means" first on the question of South Ossetia.
Turning to Tbilisi's tense ties with Russia, Nogaideli said he was "very happy about the presence of Russian capital in Georgia" but added that "a breakthrough in political relations" was needed between the two countries.
Nogaideli is considered both an ally of Saakashvili and close associate of Zhvania.
Zhvania, seen as the driving force behind market-oriented economic reform, was found dead last week in an apartment in Tbilisi after apparently succumbing to inadequately ventilated carbon monoxide fumes from a heater.
Nogaideli's confirmation is widely expected.
02/11/2005 11:41 GMT - AFP