(Adds IMF meeting, quote, paragraphs 10-13)

PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Georgian opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili, who helped oust President Eduard Shevardnadze, said on Tuesday the United States had pledged to support his country financially but he wasn't sure it would.

Saakashvili also told France's LCI television in a live interview from Tbilisi that Shevardnadze supporters wanted to block a new presidential election but Georgia's new leaders were going ahead with plans to hold it on Jan. 4.

Interim President Nino Burdzhanadze told parliament the country was on the brink of economic collapse after Shevardnadze was ousted without bloodshed following opposition accusations that he rigged the parliamentary election earlier this month.

"I have been contacted by representatives of the White House and the State Department," Saakashvili said in French.

"The Americans have promised money but one is never sure with the Americans," he said, without giving further details.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration was putting together an "inter-agency mission" to go to Georgia next week to offer help with the elections and other areas of cooperation.

U.S. officials said the State Department would lead the mission but the composition was not yet decided.

Asked about U.S. assistance to Georgia, Boucher said that a humanitarian shipment of medical supplies worth $3 million arrived in Georgia on Tuesday but that it was part of a program which began in 1991 to help areas of acute need.

The spokesman said the United States was assuming that Georgian policy on a regional oil pipeline had not changed, based on statements by the interim government that it was not making major shifts in foreign policy.

The International Monetary Fund also said in Washington its representative in Georgia would meet Burdzhanadze on Wednesday to discuss the state of the economy and a future lending program.

"The IMF is staying in close contact with the Georgian authorities and our resident representative will meet acting president Mrs Burdzhanadze tomorrow," an IMF spokesperson said.

The current IMF-backed program in Georgia expires in January and discussions on a successor program could begin as soon as authorities are ready to start talks on the 2004 macroeconomic framework, the IMF said.

In October, an IMF team visiting Georgia said it was encouraged by economic growth through September 2003, driven by construction of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a boom in residential construction and recovery in agriculture and some industrial sectors.

Saakashvili said Shevardnadze had created a "very corrupt and dangerous class, with weapons and paramilitary groups, who are not very numerous but are very dangerous."

He charged that Shevardnadze and his supporters were "making lots of plans to stop the presidential election," scheduled to be held on Jan. 4.

Saakashvili said he did not think Shevardnadze should be tried on the corruption charges the opposition has made against him, saying the former president presented no immediate danger to the country.

"When I spoke with him, I said he had two choices -- to leave like de Gaulle, peacefully, or leave like Milosevic or Ceausescu," he said, referring to the former presidents of France, Yugoslavia and Romania.

French President Charles de Gaulle quit after losing a referendum in 1969. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic waged war for years against republics that seceded from Belgrade's federation before being ousted in 2000. Nicolae Ceausescu was executed during Romania's anti-communist revolution in 1989.

Saakashvili said Shevardnadze, at their meeting on Sunday, agreed to leave peacefully. "He decided to leave without a blood bath but it was very close, very close. After that, I guaranteed his physical security." (Additional reporting by Jonathan Wright and Lesley Wroughton in Washington)

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