Index: wp-admin/options-general.php
===================================================================
--- wp-admin/options-general.php	(revision 10755)
+++ wp-admin/options-general.php	(working copy)
@@ -133,12 +133,18 @@
 <?php 
 else: // looks like we can do nice timezone selection!
 $current_offset = get_option('gmt_offset');
+$tzstring = get_option('timezone_string');
+if (empty($tzstring)) { // set the Etc zone if no timezone string exists
+	if ($current_offset < 0) $offnum = ceil($current_offset);
+	else $offnum = floor($current_offset);
+	$tzstring = 'Etc/GMT' . (($offnum >= 0) ? '+' : '') . $offnum;
+}
 ?>
 <th scope="row"><label for="timezone_string"><?php _e('Timezone') ?></label></th>
 <td>
 
 <select id="timezone_string" name="timezone_string">
-<?php echo wp_timezone_choice(get_option('timezone_string')); ?>
+<?php echo wp_timezone_choice($tzstring); ?>
 </select>
 
 <span id="utc-time"><?php printf(__('<abbr title="Coordinated Universal Time">UTC</abbr> time is <code>%s</code>'), date_i18n(__('Y-m-d G:i:s'), false, 'gmt')); ?></span>
Index: wp-includes/functions.php
===================================================================
--- wp-includes/functions.php	(revision 10755)
+++ wp-includes/functions.php	(working copy)
@@ -3104,7 +3104,7 @@
 		$zonen[$i]['subcity'] = isset($zone[2]) ? $zone[2] : '';
 		$i++;
 	}
-
+	
 	asort($zonen);
 	$structure = '';
 	$pad = '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;';
@@ -3133,9 +3133,9 @@
 			if ( !empty($subcity) ) {
 				$city = $city . '/'. $subcity;
 			}
-			$structure .= "\t<option ".((($continent.'/'.$city)==$selectedzone)?'selected="selected "':'')." value=\"".($continent.'/'.$city)."\">$pad".str_replace('_',' ',$city)."</option>\n"; //Timezone
+			$structure .= "\t<option ".((($continent.'/'.$city)==$selectedzone)?'selected="selected"':'')." value=\"".($continent.'/'.$city)."\">$pad".str_replace('_',' ',$city)."</option>\n"; //Timezone
 		} else {
-			$structure .= "<option ".(($continent==$selectedzone)?'selected="selected "':'')." value=\"".$continent."\">".$continent."</option>\n"; //Timezone
+			$structure .= "<option ".(($continent==$selectedzone)?'selected="selected"':'')." value=\"".$continent."\">".$continent."</option>\n"; //Timezone
 		}
 	}