How to get the country and region collection in magento?

Country Collection:

public function getCountryCollection(){
				   $countryCollection = Mage::getModel('directory/country_api')->items();
				   return $countryCollection;
				   }

Region Collection:
Here You will pass the your country code.
public function getRegionCollection($countryCode){
			      $regionCollection = Mage::getModel('directory/region_api')->items($countryCode);
			      return $regionCollection;
				  }