The USS Barry -- part of the 6th fleet based in Naples, Italy -- arrived at midday in the Black Sea port, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said on customary condition of anonymity.

He said it was a routine visit and not connected to tensions in the region after an August war between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

Humanitarian aid deliveries to Georgia aboard U.S. warships have drawn sharp criticism from Moscow.

The August war erupted when Georgian troops launched an offensive to regain control of South Ossetia. Russia sent in troops, which quickly routed the Georgian military and pushed deep into Georgia where they remained for weeks.

The war followed years of increasing tension between Russia and Georgia, whose pro-Western President Mikhail Saakashvili has cultivated close ties with Washington and pushed to bring his nation into NATO.