DENVER — A top Georgian official is urging liberals and members of the Democratic Party here to take up the cause of his nation, which is embroiled in a conflict with its neighbor Russia over two separatist regions.

The remarks of the chairman of Georgia’s parliament, David Bakradze, came after a rousing address to a gathering of international leaders sponsored by the National Democratic Institute. His appeal arrives as the Democratic Party prepares to put the focus of its convention tonight on national security with speakers such as President Clinton, who appeared before the NDI yesterday, and Senator Bayh of Indiana.

Democrats hope that their presumptive nominee, Senator Obama, can make a case to American voters that he is better positioned to forge foreign alliances than Senator McCain, whom they will try to link to President Bush.

In an odd twist, Georgia has been one country with which America has enjoyed strong relations in recent years, as demonstrated by the former Soviet republic’s contribution of troops to the military effort in Iraq. That fact has dulled the appeal of the Georgian cause, particularly among some liberals. Nonetheless, Georgia supporters appeared to be making headway yesterday in Denver, after Russia officially recognized the independence claims of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakaway regions. Moments before Mr. Bakradze spoke to The New York Sun, his comments to officials and lawmakers from around the world earned him a standing ovation. He was added to the final moments of a two-hour program on democracy and introduced by a secretary of state under Mr. Clinton, Madeleine Albright, who said, “We do have some people whose democracy is threatened.”

Later, speaking to the Sun, Mr. Bakradze called on liberals to back his cause. “We have a case of a small democratic nation, attacked by a large autocratic neighbor,” he said. “I think the case speaks for itself. What Georgia is guilty for is … that we don’t want to be part of this autocratic system and we want to have a right to choose, to choose our democratic system, to choose values, and to choose our security arrangements like NATO. It’s about values, democracy, and protection of human rights. It should be very important to liberals.”

Mr. Bakradze, who is the head of a Georgian delegation attending the NDI program and meeting with American officials, is using his visit to strengthen support for his country among Democrats. Members of his group have spoken to a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, Susan Rice; an informal adviser to Mr. Obama and the director of Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Graham Allison; Mrs. Albright; a former ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York.

Mr. Engel told the Sun that he spoke with Mr. Bakradze as they were entering the Pepsi Center on Monday night. “I’m glad they’re here to explain this to people who are not as aware of the situation as I am,” Mr. Engel, who favors speeding up the entry of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, said. “I told them I for one was very sympathetic to the cause of Georgian freedom. We should not allow the Russians to operate with impunity there.”

Mr. Obama’s selection of Senator Biden as his running mate drew praise from Mr. Bakradze, who noted that the Delaware senator visited his country earlier this month and backed a $1 billion aid package for Georgia. Mr. Bakradze also seemed eager to dispel the perception that his country’s cause was only a Republican cause.

“I think what we very much appreciate is that Georgia is a bipartisan issue in American politics, and we very much appreciate that we hear very good statements from Senator Obama, very good statements from Senator McCain,” he said. “This should be a bipartisan issue, and we very much value the support of the Democratic Party on this.”

The Georgian official specifically rebutted the argument prevalent in the left-leaning blogosphere that Russia’s invasion of Georgia was made possible by the American war in Iraq. “In Iraq, the situation was very different. It was an internationally recognized crisis. Saddam Hussein was recognized as a person who conducted ethnic cleansing against his own population,” Mr. Bakradze said. He suggested that better precedents for the situation today in Georgia included the Soviet Union’s military entries into Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Finland.

During his speech at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Bakradze invoked a familiar Democratic name, one much in evidence during this convention week. “A half-century ago, President Kennedy said, ‘If you want to learn something about freedom, come to Berlin,'” he said. “Today we say, ‘If you want to learn something about freedom, come to Tbilisi.'”

The Georgians will continue their campaign throughout the week, trying to meet with those advising Mr. Obama and others and vowing to preserve their nation, Mr. Bakradze said. “Despite the Russian invasion, the government is in place. … The country did not collapse, regrettably to those that expected that government will fail and government will collapse.”

gitell@aol.com