The United States has dispatched a military advisory assessment team to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to determine the extent that Georgian armed forces may need military assistance in counterterrorism and unconventional warfare tactics, a senior Pentagon official says.

Marine Corps General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said February 27 that a team of seven trainers was currently in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, offering training in the operation and maintenance of 10 UH-1H "Huey" combat utility helicopters transferred to the Georgian armed forces in November. The "Huey" helicopter came into the U.S. military inventory during the Vietnam War and flew every type of air assault mission from combat attack gunships and troop carriers to air ambulance "Medevacs."

At a Pentagon briefing, Pace said a military assessment team from the U.S. European Command is currently working with the Georgian armed forces to determine where Georgia needs cooperative military assistance, but it is "very much in the formative stages, in the assessment stage, in the planning," which means no decision has been made on whether U.S. Army Special Forces advisory teams will be sent to the country.

"The fact is that the two governments are discussing right now ways that the United States and the government of Georgia can work together to assist in training, equipping the Georgian armed forces to help them with their own internal security problems," Pace said. The helicopters are a separate issue and are "exclusive of the global war on terrorism," he said.

In military assistance arrangements, the United States makes an initial assessment of a host country's needs, at its request; then both countries must agree to a country assistance plan, which is tailored to the host country's internal security problems, Pace said. A 40-man team of U.S. military advisers visited Georgia this month to assess its needs, according to the U.S. European Command, which oversees that region.

"We value our military-to-military relationship with them, which clearly predates September 11th. And we have always been and remain committed to their efforts to improve their internal security," said Assistant Defense Secretary for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke.

Clarke said the United States is working closely with Georgia "because internal security and stability there improves stability in the region."

Pace said it is possible there may be al-Qaida terrorists in the region, and that it is possible there is a link between the Chechen rebels in Russia -- which borders Georgia -- and al-Qaida, but he refused to elaborate on those issues.