Listselect selecting the first item in list by default

I have a list select where the number of items is more then can be shown in the list select (limiting the number of rows programatically). When that is the case it is selecting the first item in the list, which means that my value change trigger is not firing if I select that one. The listselect is set to not allow null selections or multi-selections. Below is the code that intialzes the list select.
this.countries.setNullSelectionAllowed(false);
this.countries.setRows(3);
this.countries.setMultiSelect(false);
this.countries.setImmediate(true);
this.countries.addValueChangeListener(this.countrySelected);

I want it to not have anything selected until the user selects something.

Thank you
Freddy