Working groups of U.S. military experts to arrive in Georgia.

Working groups of the U.S. military experts will arrive in Georgia in the near future for development of a new phase of the Georgian-U.S. military cooperation, Georgian Defense Minister Bacho Akhalaia told "Rustavi-2" television company.

"This visit aims at conducting preparatory work to implement programs of cooperation within transfer of cooperation between the two countries into an entirely new phase," he stressed.

As Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said earlier after talks with the U.S. President Barack Obama, the Georgian-U.S. military cooperation will enter a new phase and will be directed at increasing defense capability of the Georgian Armed Forces.

Mr Akhalaia reiterated that cooperation between Georgia and the United States in the defense sphere "enters an entirely new phase". "If in previous years, the two countries' cooperation in the defense sphere focused on the military training of Georgian servicemen, who participated in peacekeeping operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, now the question will be about U.S. specific assistance to improve Georgia's defense capability and security," he said.

Akhalaia said during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in Brussels on Feb.2, "the sides discussed prospects of bilateral cooperation in defense sphere".