U.S. sends envoy to protest Georgia emergency rule

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will send an envoy to Georgia this weekend to emphasize Washington's opposition to the declaration of a state of emergency, said the State Department on Friday.

Matt Bryza, an assistant secretary of state for European affairs, will meet President Mikhail Saakashvili and other Georgian officials in Tbilisi in the coming days.

"He will be in Georgia to provide our views and counsel," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Earlier on Friday, Georgia's parliament endorsed Saakashvili's state of emergency decree, which bans large meetings and severely restricts free media.

McCormack called the vote disappointing.

Saakashvili has said emergency rule was needed to counter the threat posed by Russian security services, which he said were stirring up civil disorder in Georgia.

"The imposition of the state of emergency or roll back, albeit temporarily, of those freedoms was not in Georgia's interests, not in the Georgian people's interests," McCormack said.

McCormack declined to say whether the state of emergency could set back Georgia's hopes for joining NATO.

"It is something that we are going to watch closely," he said.

McCormack said the United States, like other NATO members, would look at conditions in Georgia and see how those conditions matched up with requirements for NATO membership.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming, editing by Doina Chiacu)