TBILISI -- Georgia is prepared to open its military bases and its airports to NATO in the event of an anti-terrorist operation following last week's suicide attacks in the United States, Defense Minister, Gela Bezhuashvili, said Monday. A final decision could only be made by Georgian President, Eduard Shevarnadze, and the country's Parliament, Bezhuashvili told reporters. However, Tbilisi was likely to give the go-ahead "because fighting terrorism is not only the United States' problem and Georgia cannot ignore it," he said. On Saturday Russian Defense, Minister Sergei Ivanov, ruled out NATO deploying its forces in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the loose grouping of the former Soviet republics apart from the three Baltic states.