US Vice President Dick Cheney (c) walks past an honor guard on arrival in Baku on September 3.

Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney arrived in Azerbaijan on Wednesday, part of a tour of three ex-Soviet republics wary of Russia’s intentions following last month’s war between Russia and neighboring Georgia.
State-run TV showed footage of Cheney arriving at a Baku airport and being greeting by government officials, according to AP.
No schedule for Cheney’s visit was made public, though he met with President Ilham Aliev and others in this Caspian Sea nation--home to some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union.
The US vice president was to head to neighboring Georgia on Thursday, where Washington is trying to bolster support for President Mikhail Saakashvili’s US-allied government, battered by last month’s short war with Russia.
Cheney said during his visit to Azerbaijan that the United States had a deep interest in the wellbeing of its allies in the region.
“We’ve met this evening in the shadow of the recent Russian invasion of Georgia,“ Cheney told reporters as he sat next to Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
“President Bush has sent me here with a clear and simple message for the people of Azerbaijan and the entire region: the United States has a deep and abiding interest in your well-being and security,“ he said.
He also said the US believes it must work with Azerbaijan on additional energy export routes.
Cheney also will pay a visit to Ukraine for talks with leaders there.
The trip comes amid increasingly tense relations between Washington and Moscow. Following the war in Georgia, Russia has boldly asserted its right to exert clout over what it says is its historic sphere of influence--including many former Soviet republics.
Both Georgia and Ukraine have sought to pull themselves out from under Russia’s shadow, pushing for membership in Western structures like the European Union and NATO--much to Moscow’s consternation.
Washington has also courted Azerbaijan, trying to ensure its oil wealth is exported to the West bypassing Russia. Aliev’s government is often criticized by rights groups for heavy-handed treatment of independent media and opposition groups and international observers have said past elections were flawed.
Georgia Aid
Cheney’s visit comes as the US administration plans to roll out a US$1 billion economic aid package for Georgia to help it rebuild. The White House and US State Department intend to jointly announce the aid package later Wednesday.
“One of the real ripple effects of Russia’s action has been the need for the outside world to help Georgia and its economy,“ State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
“It’s a strong economy. It had -- it had a strong record of growth, and we want to make sure that it continues to have that strong record of growth,“ McCormack told reporters.
Energy Interest
Meanwhile, a Russian security official said Cheney is seeking America’s access to oil and gas during a trip to the resource-rich Caucasus.
Nikolai Patrushev said the goal of Cheney’s visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine is to trade US support for energy supplies, AP reported. He said the US has to ensure these countries have sympathetic regimes in order to make that happen.
Patrushev is the head of Russia’s powerful presidential Security Council, and is in the Armenian capital of Yerevan for a meeting of a Moscow-led bloc called the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Yuriko Koike emerged Wednesday as a possible contender to be Japan’s first female prime minister, with heavyweights in the ailing ruling party urging her to challenge conservative favourite Taro Aso.
Koike, 56, a former television anchorwoman who has been a defense minister and environment minister, has stayed coy on whether she will contest a party vote on September 22 to replace outgoing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, AFP reported.
Fukuda, who has faced months of low poll ratings, announced his resignation Monday, plunging Japan’s long-dominant ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) into crisis mode. General elections must be held by September 2009, but the government is in trouble against an emboldened opposition while the economy, the world’s second biggest, is teetering on the verge of recession.
“I want to consider what we need in general, rather than my own individual situation,“ Koike told reporters when asked if she would seek the top job.
“I’m contacting various people since you can’t play a baseball game all by yourself.“

North Korea has begun reassembling its Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs in violation of US conditions for improved diplomatic relations, Reuters reported.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said reconstruction began on Monday. It cited sources in Beijing close to six-party nuclear talks on North Korean, which involve Japan, South Korea, Russia and China, as well as North Korea and the United States.
North Korea said on August 26 it would stop disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear complex and accused the United States of violating a disarmament-for-aid deal.
Fox News, quoting US officials, said the North Koreans were likely protesting a US delay in removing the communist state from its list of terrorist-sponsoring nations.
Fox did not give details of the reassembly work nor did it cite a North Korean source.
Even now, piecing the facility back together is seen as a “symbolic gesture“ because so much already has been taken apart, Fox reported.
North Korea began disabling its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor and other facilities at its Yongbyon facility in November as a step toward their ultimate dismantlement in exchange for economic aid and political concessions, including removal from the US terror list.

A third US Navy ship carrying humanitarian aid is crossing the Turkish Straits on its way to Georgia.
The USS Mount Whitney steamed through the Dardanelles early Wednesday and was expected to pass through the Bosporus later in the day, AP reported.
The two Turkish-controlled straits link the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
The ship is the third US Navy vessel the military said would take supplies such as blankets, hygiene kits and baby food to Georgia following its war with Russia over South Ossetia.
One of the three US ships, the USS McFaul, sailed back through the straits toward the Mediterranean late Monday.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday complained about an increase of NATO ships in the region and promised to respond.
In other news, the European Parliament has issued a strong appeal to Russia to “honor all its commitments“ to withdraw its troops under a cease-fire agreement with Georgia.
The European Union assembly has passed a resolution calling on Moscow to ensure the “complete and immediate“ withdrawal of its troops from Georgia and to reduce its force strength in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Ukraine’s president ordered the creation of a new governing coalition Wednesday and threatened fresh elections, accusing his rival prime minister and opposition parties of attempting a “constitutional coup.“
Viktor Yushchenko’s statement, broadcast live on national television, came shortly after his allies in parliament pulled out of the governing coalition, putting it in the brink of collapse, AFP reported.
Ukraine’s western-leaning government has long been marked by bitter feuding between rivals and even allies. But this latest crisis comes as the country faces growing uncertainty in its ties with Moscow, after Ukraine condemned Russia’s war with Georgia last month.
The Tuesday night walkout came after lawmakers loyal to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko sided with opposition parties to pass a law weakening presidential powers and boosting those of the prime minister.
“Yesterday, a political and constitutional coup began in parliament,“ Yushchenko said in his speech. “I consider the events in the Ukrainian parliament a formal beginning of the formation of a new parliamentary coalition.“
He ordered lawmakers to form a new coalition and threatened to call early elections if no coalition is formed on time.

A man recently released from jail on drug charges and whose mother calls him ’’desperately mentally ill’’ is accused of a shooting spree that left six people dead and two others injured in northwest Washington.
State Department of Corrections officials identified the gunman as Isaac Zamora, 28, who had just served a six-month jail sentence for drug possession in Skagit County. He surrendered to authorities after Tuesday’s deadly spree, according to New York Times.
Zamora, had been released Aug. 6 and was under community supervision by Corrections officers, spokesman Chad Lewis said. Zamora’s mother said she had tried repeatedly to get help for her son, whom she described as ’’desperately mentally ill.’’
’’We’re so devastated for the families,’’ Dennise Zamora told The Associated Press by telephone. ’’I wish it would have been him or me that was killed. That’s how deeply I feel about it.’’
Six people died Tuesday, including a Skagit County sheriff’s deputy who had tried to help the suspect’s family in the past, and a motorist who died on Interstate 5 as the suspect fled.
At least two others were wounded, including a Washington State Patrol trooper shot while trying to stop the shooter on the freeway, the State Patrol said. A motorcyclist also was shot in the arm at a Shell gas station. The slain deputy was identified as Anne Jackson, 40, whom Zamora described as a sympathetic figure who had tried to help the family in the past. The other victims were not immediately identified.