Putin, Bush will meet in Beijing

MOSCOW, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- US President George Bush and Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold face-to-face talks on August 8 in Beijing, where they arrive to attend the opening of the Olympic Games.

This will be their first meeting since Putin left the post of
president and was appointed prime minister.

A source in the Russian government told Itar-Tass that the
"conversation is to be brief - five to 15 minutes, as the time is pressed because of tight schedules of the sides".

The US White House said Putin and Bush would spend together a few
minutes in friendly communication.
Bush does not plan other bilateral meetings in Beijing except with
Putin and China's leaders.
The source in the Russian government said the Russian prime minister
and the US president "will touch upon major topics of cooperation".
In particular, "Vladimir Putin will surely ask the American leader how
the presidential campaign is going on in the US, and Bush in turn will
give his assessment of these events".
The sources did not rule out that "acute issues of bilateral and
international relations can be raised" at the meeting, in particular the
missile defence and the situation with Georgia.
"Any acute questions can be raised, depending on where the channel of
the conversation of the politicians leads."
Putin and Bush agreed to meet in Beijing during their latest meeting
in Sochi in this year's April.
Putin then described as positive results of his eight-year work with
Bush despite remaining differences.
"Since the time of our first meeting in Ljubljana back in 2001, open
and sincere relations have established between us. This allowed us to
immediately proceed to the discussion without ambages of the most topical
matters of the world and bilateral agenda," Putin said.
"I shall say frankly that this dialogue sometimes was complex. There
were and there are serious differences between our countries on some or
our problem; the search for denominators is not simple. Nonetheless,
George and I have been able to build work so that differences on some
issues do not have an adverse influence on the state of affairs in other
fields. Steadiness of the whole structure of the Russian-American
relations was thus consolidated," Putin said.
The US president in turn gave his opinion on cooperation with Putin
over the past years.
"I respect you, Vladimir. You are a strong leader," he said.
Bush visited Sochi together with his wife Laura at the invitation of
the Russian side.
The US president arrives in Beijing on Wednesday. His visit will
continue through August 11.