"Russia is not the enemy of the United States," Bush told a joint news conference after the 90-minute talks. "As a matter of fact after our meeting today I am convinced it can be a strong partner and friend, more so than people could imagine."

While Putin cautioned the United States against unilaterally deploying a controversial anti-missile defense shield, he said he was convinced the two former Cold War foes could work together constructively on security matters.

Bush gave a similarly upbeat assessment of US-Russia relations after the two men met one-on-one at a 16th-century castle near the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, and said the two leaders would exchange visits soon.

"I looked the man in the eye, I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy," he said. "I appreciated very much the frank dialogue...This was a very good meeting and I view him as a remarkable leader."

Their talks, originally scheduled to last 30 minutes, ran to an hour and a half before the two men took a stroll along a tree-lined path through the castle's picturesque grounds.

Putin was also positive on the relationship, saying: "I am convinced that ahead of us we have a constructive dialogue."

He reiterated Russia's staunch opposition to Washington's planned missile defense system, which Moscow argues would call into question the Cold-War-era Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"Any unilateral actions can only make more complicated various problems and issues," Putin told the news conference. "We proceed from the idea that the 1972 ABM treaty is the cornerstone of the modern architecture of security."

But he signaled that there might have been at least a little movement. "We proceed from the premise that there are elements that unite us with our partners in the United States," he said. "Based on today's dialogue, I have the impression we might have a very constructive development in this arena."

Putin departed Slovenia only minutes after the news conference ended, heading for Belgrade where he was expected later on Saturday. Bush was scheduled to depart for Washington shortly after Putin left.

MUTUAL VISITS

Bush said he and Putin had each accepted an invitation to visit the other's country. He said he had invited Putin to come to his ranch in Texas, as well as to Washington, later this year and that he would meet Putin again in July.

The former Texas oilman and the one-time KGB spy had been expected to discuss not only missile defense but also weapons proliferation, NATO enlargement and hot spots like the Middle East and the Balkans.

"We remember the old history. This time we write new history, in a positive and constructive way," Bush said later.

A few minutes into their walk they shed their interpreters and spoke animatedly alone. Asked what language they were speaking, Putin raised his hand to his face as if to impart a secret and said: "In English."

As they began a second meeting with a group of aides, Bush was asked why the initial session had run longer than planned.

"We did because we got along really well," he replied.

Aides had played down the chances of any formal agreements, saying the session was more a chance for the two to size each other up than to spar over detailed policies.

Before the talks started, 22 activists from the environmentalist group Greenpeace were arrested outside the US embassy in Ljubljana after two scaled a fence and tried to replace the US flag with a banner reading "Stop Star Wars".

Throughout his five-day European trip Bush has said he wanted to make the case to Putin that a missile shield was not designed to give Washington strategic superiority over Moscow but to guard against "blackmail" from rogue states.

Moscow resists the idea because it would entail scrapping the ABM, which forbids such defensive systems.

"RELIC OF THE PAST"

"The ABM treaty is a relic of the past," Bush said as he began his first official trip to Europe which has taken him to Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Poland.

The treaty rests on the Cold War idea that neither Washington nor Moscow would launch a nuclear attack on the other because of the certainty of massive retaliation.

The United States has argued that the new potential threat of a rogue missile attack from states like Iran, Iraq, Libya or North Korea justifies altering the treaty to allow Washington to develop a missile defense shield.

Putin struck a conciliatory note on Friday, saying he wanted to hear Bush's strategic thinking straight from the source and hoped their debut summit would help find a common approach to global security.

Earlier in the week, however, Kremlin aides laid out a much harder line, with one repeating Moscow's view that undermining the ABM pact "can destroy the system of disarmament agreements and deal an irreparable blow to non-proliferation regimes".

(chinadaily.com.cn 06/17/2001)