After two days of discussion in which opposition figures lashed out at the former Soviet foreign minister for economic and military setbacks, deputies decided 127 to 32 not to vote on removing him.
Shevardnadze holds the posts of both parliamentary chairman and head of state in the Transcaucasian republic of 5.5 million.
On Tuesday Shevardnadze threatened to resign after opposition deputies blamed him for the loss of Georgia's Black Sea province of Abkhazia, one year to the day after separatists captured its capital Sukhumi.
Shevardnadze, once Soviet foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev and still the most popular man in Georgia, has often used the threat to get what he wanted from parliament.
Some observers say that the latest episode was an effort to win a new endorsement as he seeks to introduce economic reforms and tackle figures in positions of power believed to have ties to organized crime.
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