Cindy McCain heads to Georgia for U.N. food program

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - Cindy McCain, the wife of Sen. John McCain, flew Monday evening to the Republic of Georgia, where a military confrontation with Russia over disputed territory has become an issue on the presidential campaign trail.

John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate, announced the visit to a group of fundraisers in Sacramento. McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker confirmed that Cindy McCain was en route to Georgia and said she is visiting as part of the U.N. World Food Program. Hazelbaker said she will meet with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and visit with wounded Georgian soldiers.

John McCain has repeatedly condemned Russia's military incursion into Georgian territory, and his campaign has been critical of Sen. Barack Obama's more measured response when Russian tanks invaded.

Since the outbreak of violence, several people seen as emissaries from the two campaigns have visited. McCain sent Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Obama signed off on a trip by his new running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden.

In an interview with Time magazine published on its website moments after her husband broke the news to donors, Cindy McCain said that she has wanted to visit Georgia for "some time," and that such trips are "an important part of what I'm about, what makes me tick."

McCain aides denied that the trip was scheduled to occur during the Democratic convention, and specifically on the day that Cindy McCain's counterpart, Michelle Obama, spoke.

"She's on the phone with the World Food Program, he's on the phone with Saakashvili," McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace told Time. "It's like this great picture of what they'll be like in the White House."

"Georgia was one of the first Christian nations," McCain said. "Georgia, back in the third century, the king of Georgia converted to Christianity. You see churches there that date back to the fourth and fifth century."

Cindy McCain told Time she is concerned about the proliferation of land mines in Georgia and the danger to refugees.

"There's a whole bunch of things going on right now, and as we begin to move refugees from point A to point B or try to feed refugees who are stuck in pockets around the country, we're running into the issue of the blowing up of humanitarian vehicles that are trying to get to the refugees. So it's a whole morass of problems now," she said.

Russian forces began to pull back Friday from parts of Georgia, but U.S. and European officials said Monday that Moscow continues to violate the terms of a peace deal negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The agreement called for the return of both sides to positions they held before the war, leaving a small number of Russian "peacekeepers."

But Western officials say the peacekeepers have been replaced by mainline Russian forces, who have set up posts in Georgia beyond the allowed areas.