Warsaw will "not only give political backing to Georgia's aspirations, but will also share Poland's own experiences of integrating the EU," Cimoszewicz was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.

Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili, in Warsaw for an official visit, said both countries shared a "common objective which is to encourage the spread of democracy in Europe".

Zurabishvili notably referred to the situation in Ukraine, where the Western-leaning opposition has managed to secure a re-run of a fraudulent presidential election following several weeks of mass protests.

The turbulence in Ukraine came exactly one year after Georgia peacefully ousted its communist-era leadership, forcing veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze to step aside in favor of a Western-educated reformer, Mikhail Saakashvili.

The strategic former Soviet republic in the Caucasus has said it hopes to join the NATO military alliance within four years and eventually also to join the EU.

Zurabishvili and Cimoszewicz on Wednesday signed a cooperation agreement on European and euro-Atlantic integration, as well as an agreement in the field of science and culture.

The Georgian minister, who held talks earlier Wednesday with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, was travelling with a 50-strong delegation of business leaders.

Both countries share a communist past but Poland joined the European Union in May and NATO in 1999.

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