Georgia's new leaders have nominated Mr Mikhail Saakashvili as their sole candidate for presidential elections and the US-educated lawyer immediately said he expected to win.
The three main figures who brought down veteran leader Mr Eduard Shevardnadze put aside personal rivalries to settle on a single candidate for the January 4th poll, as they strove to save the country from economic catastrophe and internal turmoil.
"We made a decision that in future presidential elections we'll have a single candidate...and this single candidate in the elections will be Mikhail Saakashvili," Interim President Ms Nino Burdzhanadze told a parliament news conference to loud applause.
The hugely popular Mr Saakashvili, driving force in the "people power" revolution that toppled Mr Shevardnadze last weekend, immediately took the microphone to announce he was confident of victory. "I am ready for our victory in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections," he declared.
"The revolution continues and will be over only when Georgia becomes happy, successful and fully formed," he said, a reference to separatist tensions that plague the country.
Earlier the International Monetary Fund brought hope to Georgia, promising to be "helpful" to its new leaders as they struggle to avert economic chaos and get political life moving.
The West has been watching developments in Georgia closely because of plans to build a pipeline across its territory taking oil from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean Sea.
The new leaders have made it clear they need Western aid to help them turn round the fortunes of a country mired in poverty.
The IMF told the Shevardnadze administration it would not make loans to Georgia under a poverty reduction programme until it dealt with mass corruption and tax evasion.
Georgia has $1.78 billion in foreign debt including some $600 million owed to the IMF.