weapons coming across the Iranian border.

"The experience will help me as a soldier if I am called on to defend Georgia in the future," says Mukeria, back at his base on the outskirts of Kutaisi, Georgia's second city. From here, Soviet soldiers went to fight the Nazis in World War II, and the Mujahidin in Afghanistan for 10 years from 1978.

Today, there is again the prospect of soldiers based here ending up in Afghanistan - but this time it will be as members of the Coalition of the Willing.

"For our country it's important to take part in combat operations," says Major Zaza Kvaraia, also just returned to Kutaisi from Iraq. Major Kvaraia joined the army in the early 1990s, and remembers a time of meagre salaries, brutal beatings for conscripts, and slack discipline.

"The Russian Army is still like the Soviet Army, but since 2003, we

have changed," he says. He spent a year training in the US. His men wear uniforms provided by the US Army and receive regular training from visiting American teams. Salaries are now reasonable by local standards, and conscription will be fully phased out next year.

In the end, the attraction of Iraq for the Georgian Army is not the chance to spread freedom, nor is it borne of geopolitical considerations about oil or pipelines. It is first and foremost about Abkhazia.

Georgia's eagerness to support the US in Iraq is hardly going to persuade America to send troops to fight the Russians in Abkhazia. But the Georgians hope that the equipment, training and combat experience they get out of it will stand them in good stead. "After Iraq, we're ready for anything," says Major Kvaraia.