US to deliver aid to tense Georgian port

TBILISI, Georgia - A spokesman for the U.S. embassy says the American navy will deliver food aid to a Georgian port city where Russian forces have set up checkpoints on the outskirts.U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas, second of U.S. vessels on their way to Georgia with humanitarian aid, sails through the Bosphorus in Istanbul, August 24, 2008.

The city, Poti, is one of the most tense areas of Georgia following this month's war with Russia. Although many Russian troops have pulled back under a cease-fire agreement, hundreds remain at checkpoints in so-called "security zones" that Moscow claims for itself.

U.S. embassy spokesman Stephen Guice told The Associated Press that U.S. ship-borne humanitarian aid would be delivered to Poti on Wednesday.

The move could further increase tensions between Russia and the United States, which have hit a post-Cold War high in the wake of the war.