Bush, Putin discuss Iran, nuclear weapons over lunch man says

By Jennifer Loven\nThe Associated Press\nMOSCOW -- President Bush, eager for Russian help in ongoing nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran, tended to the sometimes frosty Washington-Moscow relationship Wednesday by paying a quick call on President Vladimir Putin.\nBush paused to visit the Russian leader for an hour and a half at an airport stopover on his way to Asia for an eight-day trip that includes stays in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia. Bush has meetings scheduled with several important allies, including Putin, on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Hanoi, Vietnam, later this week. But only Putin rated a social call as well.\nRussian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov as saying the two presidents discussed the Iranian nuclear program, the situation in the Middle East and nuclear nonproliferation.\nGromov also confirmed that a bilateral agreement on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization was being readied for signing in Hanoi.\nNational security adviser Stephen Hadley, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One after Bush left, said the president's get-together with Putin "was a social meeting as we said it would be. This was a refueling stop."\nBut Hadley also said that they "talked a little bit about proliferation generally" with regards to Iran and North Korea. He also said that he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, about efforts to find an agreement on a new U.N. security resolution on Iran.\n"We had a good discussion about that," Hadley said. "I think basically the strategy that all of the countries who are working on this is to come up with a resolution themselves. I think the Russians think it's sound."\nWhen Bush and his wife, Laura, landed, they were greeted on a red carpet on the tarmac by Putin and his wife, Lyudmila. The Russian president presented Mrs. Bush with a bouquet of yellow, orange and red flowers and the foursome exchanged kisses.