Bush And Putin Put Heads Together

President Bush has held his first face-to-face meeting with Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, and, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, it looks like a warm front in U.S.-Russia relations.

A frank Bush-Putin summit has led to invites, not just to each other's countries, but to each other's homes.

After a week's tour of Europe, President Bush sat down in a Slovene country manor, for what he called a very good meeting, with Putin. Mr. Bush wants to tear up the old Soviet-American antiballistic missile treaty to make way for an untested missile defense shield, which could render Russian weapons obsolete.

While he failed to persuade Putin, the men did agree to continue top-level dialogue on global security.

"The differences in our approaches in the very fundamental areas are much less than that which unites us," Putin told reporters through a translator.

European leaders had said they feared Mr. Bush was asking for their advice, only to ignore it. But the Russian president says he is confident that it will be a two-way street.

"We found a good basis to start building on cooperation, counting on a pragmatic relationship between Russia and the United States," Putin said at a joint news conference.

Putin said the two hours of talks, the first between the leaders, inside Brdo Castle were an "honest, frank dialogue."

Mr. Bush had hoped to use the meeting to thaw the chill in U.S.-Russian relations over Mr. Bush's plan to deploy a missile defense system. But Putin did not appear moved.

"Any unilateral actions can openly make more complicated" problems and issues between the two countries, Putin said. "Differences in approaches do exist."

He announced that Putin would come to the United States in the fall and visit Mr. Bush's ranch in central Texas. Mr. Bush said he would, in turn, visit Moscow. Putin said he looked forward to welcoming Mr. Bush to his home.

"I am convinced that he and I can build a relationship of mutual respect and candor," Mr. Bush said.

The pair meets again next month in Genoa, Italy, at the G-8 summit of industrial powers.

On Saturday, Mr. Bush and Patin exchanged warm compliments as they addressed reporters on the lawn of the elegant 16th century estate that was a favorite of the late Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.

Putin saluted Mr. Bush as "an honest, straightforward man who loves his country."

Mr Bush said the Russian was a leader whom Americans can trust. He also passed along a compliment that seemed to carry special meaning, given Mr. Bush's domestic priority on tax cuts.

"I was so impressed that (Putin) was able to simplify his tax code in Russia with a flat tax. I'm not so sure I'll have the same success with Congress," Mr. Bush said.

On missile defense, atop Mr. Bush's foreign policy agenda, Putin voiced unwavering reservations and appealed for a go-slow approach.

Without restating Russia's opposition, Putin said, "The official position of the Russian government is known."

He said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty banning such missile defense plans is the "cornerstone of the modern architecture of international security."

The United States and Russia must work together to identify security threats and officials from both countries should sit down to "try to find a way together to solve these problems," Putin said.

On another contentious issue, Mr. Bush reiterated his support for expanding NATO. He then invited Putin to restate Russia's opposition to the Western alliance taking in states along the Russian border.

Putin fished around on his lectern for a declassified, 1954 Soviet memo to document from which to read.

"I'm going to lay it out for you," Putin said, while Mr. Bush chuckled at his counterpart's theatrics.

"Russia is cooperating with NATO. ... There's no need to fire up this whole situation," Putin said.

Their initial meeting — just the two leaders plus one security adviser and one translator apiece — lasted an hour and 40 minutes, about 40 minutes longer than scheduled. Mr. Bush and Putin took a break, strolled along a gravel road winding through pines on the castle grounds, then went into another meeting. The overall summit lasted a little more than two hours.

In Ljubljana, riot police brought in armored cars and a water cannon to disperse about 1,000 protesters who had marched to the Russian embassy Saturday afternoon. A woman planted herself in front of the convoy.

Earlier Saturday, security guards and riot police detained 20 environmental activists after some of them jumped a fence surrounding the U.S. embassy compound. Other protesters chained themselves together outside the compound, holding a banner reading "Stop Star Wars."

Russia asserts that Mr. Bush's approach would ignite a new arms race, although it has expressed a willingness to explore the question of what, if any, changes should be made to current arms-control regimes.

In an effort to normalize the relationship, Mr. Bush hopes to begin consultations among American cabinet secretaries and Russian ministers on security and economic issues, U.S. officials said.

At the same time, Mr. Bush wants to disband a high-level panel, run by then-Vice President Al Gore and then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, that oversaw major U.S.-Russian issues during the Clinton administration.

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