Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hoped for "good... friendly" talks with US counterpart George W. Bush at a meeting Sunday in the United States. Putin will go on later to Guatemala to lobby for Russia's 2014 Olympic bid.
"I hope that the dialogue with this person with whom I've formed good, I would say friendly relations, will take place in exactly that spirit," Putin was quoted by Interfax as saying ahead of the talks with Bush. "Otherwise I wouldn't be going and wouldn't have received the invitation," Putin said.
Putin spoke ahead of his departure for the Bush family home at Kennebunkport, Maine for informal talks on tensions between the countries, notably missile defence, the future status of Kosovo and US criticism of Russia's democracy record.