"Georgia does not want war and does not prepare for one, but our country needs to be defended in a decade or a century as much as today," Saakashvili declared.

"The enemy must know that in case of aggression he will face not only the army, but the entire nation," he added.

The program would follow Israel's and Switzerland's system, setting up bases where reserve troops, made up of Georgians of a certain age and physical health, could be armed and equipped at need.

Saakashvili recently warned that Georgia was "very close to a war with Russia and the population must be prepared" after relations between Moscow and Tbilisi declined sharply due to Georgia's conflict with its breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Georgia pulled troops back from the separatist pro-Moscow region last week after an unprecedented show of force that infuriated Russia and worried Washington.

South Ossetia falls within Georgian borders but is inhabited mainly by ethnic Ossetians.

The adjacent province of North Ossetia, also dominated by Ossetians, is part of Russia. South Ossetia has demanded either independence or rule from Moscow.

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