TBILISI (Reuters) -- Georgia's new leaders won U.S. support and said they would seek urgent international financial aid on Monday after president Eduard Shevardnadze was ousted in a bloodless revolution.

Washington backed the new interim president, outgoing Parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, to promote fresh elections in the impoverished former Soviet republic after Shevardnadze bowed to mass protests over alleged vote-rigging and resigned.

"The United States and the international community stand ready to support the new government in holding free and fair parliamentary elections in the future," said U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, adding U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had called Burdzhanadze to offer support.

Powell also spoke to Shevardnadze and Boucher praised the former Soviet foreign minister -- a hero in the West when he helped oversee the end of the Cold War -- for resigning after 11 years in power "in the best interests of (Georgia's) people".

Burdzhanadze urged Georgians to work to restore order quickly in the Caucasus mountain state, anxiously watched in the West because a pipeline is being built through its territory to carry Caspian oil to the Mediterranean Sea.

"From tomorrow order and stability should be restored in the country and I appeal to all law enforcement agencies to return to a normal rhythm of work. And I appeal to our citizens to help them," Burdzhanadze said in a television address on Sunday.