President Shevardnadze welcomes US help

"You know when you have boats in the harbour and the tide comes in and lifts them up? We are going to play the tide for the whole Georgian army," Lieutenant Colonel Bill Wheelehan told Reuters news agency before greeting the new instructors.

Muslim separatist guerrillas operating in neighbouring Chechnya are believed to use the northern Pankisi Gorge as a base, and Washington believes some of these groups have links to al-Qaeda.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has said the US military presence in his country is "a very important factor for strengthening and developing Georgian statehood."

The original decision to send US soldiers to Georgia provoked a negative reaction from Moscow, which regards the country as being within its sphere of influence.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the move was "no tragedy" for Russian interests.

No combat

Washington says its troops will not be involved in any combat in Georgia, only the training of about 2,000 Georgian soldiers in military strategy and tactics.

There will eventually be up to 200 US military instructors in the country, but the Pentagon says they will stay for just six months as part of the $64m training mission.

The US has also agreed to provide guns, ammunition, communications gear and other equipment to the Georgian army, which has been poorly trained and funded.

US troops or military instructors on similar missions have also been sent to the Philippines and to Yemen.