US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks at a news conference after talks with Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili (not pictured) in Tbilisi on July 10, 2008. Rice called for a halt to violence in two separatist provinces of Georgia and said the United States would work to help stabilize the area. Rice's visit to Georgia came amid increasingly open diplomatic confrontation between the United States and Russia over the status of Abkhazia and the other separatist province, South Ossetia, and over Georgia's desire to join NATO. AFP PHOTO / VANO SHLAMOV