Georgian parliament speaker Nino Burdjanadze on 20 September asked Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili to explain to the parliament\'s committee on foreign relations why Georgia is at risk of losing its voting rights at the UN because of unpaid membership dues amounting to almost $6 million, Caucasus Press reported. Burdjanadze argued that the Foreign Ministry should have acted earlier to avert that possibility. The arrears date back at least five years, and Tbilisi has avoided forfeiting its voting rights only by paying off portions of that debt at intervals. Speaking in New York on 20 September, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili described the work of Zourabichvili, whom he personally appointed foreign minister in March, as \"not ideal,\" but he acknowledged that she has contributed a great deal to Georgia\'s relations with Europe. (ITAR-TASS reported)