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TOYAKO, Japan - US President George W. Bush on Monday holds his first face-to-face talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a chance to weigh up Vladimir Putin's heir and tackle outstanding disputes.
Moscow's opposition to US missile defence plans, US worries about the rule of law and democracy in Russia, and flaring tensions between former Soviet satellite Georgia and its giant neighbour are on the agenda, US officials say.
But Bush also expects to reaffirm his support for admitting Russia to the World Trade Organisation and buttress Russo-US cooperation on curbing Iran's suspect nuclear programme, the officials say.
"The president looks forward to speaking with President Medvedev about areas in which the US and Russia can intensify co-operation in the months ahead," said US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"The President also looks forward to learning more about President Medvedev's domestic priorities for strengthening rule of law in Russia and exploring ways to reduce tensions and build peace and security in the region, including in Georgia's separatist region of Abkhazia," he said.
The talks come as Bush leaves office in fewer than 200 days and is here at his last Group of Eight (G8) summit, while Medvedev took office in May and is making his debut at the elite gathering of leaders of wealthy nations.
With his youthful image and reputation for openness, Medvedev, 42, cuts a different character than his mentor Putin, who retains the powerful post of prime minister and, some in the West believe, still holds the reins.
In policy terms, Medvedev has few differences from Putin -- notably opposition to US plans to deploy a missile defence system against what Washington says is a threat from Iran and North Korea.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said Sunday that Medvedev would push Bush "to begin to take into account our concerns in a real and not a propagandistic way," according to the Interfax news agency.
At an April meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Bush "heard our concerns, recognized them as legitimate and promised to take measures to overcome them," but his pledge "has faded to nothing," Prikhodko said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due next week in the Czech Republic to sign a deal to deploy an anti-missile radar, and may stop in nearby Poland to sign a pact to base 10 missile interceptors there, US officials say.
The United States wants to deploy the shield in the central European nations by 2011-2013 amid concerns about the impact on ties with Russia, which denounces the plan as a threat to its own security.
NATO endorsed the US plan at its April summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest, but public opinion in Poland and the Czech Republic is broadly opposed to the defensive system.
Medvedev, who met Bush at the Russo-US summit in Sochi, has already travelled as president to China and Germany and chaired a summit with the European Union, and is due to meet here with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Relations have been uneasy between Russia and Britain since the murder in London in 2006 of Russian agent-turned-dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
The meeting also comes one month after Bush and the European Union pressed Russia to recognize Georgia's territorial integrity amid charges from Tbilisi that Moscow has propped up separatists in two breakaway Georgia regions.
Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, broke from Georgian control during wars in the early 1990s that left thousands dead and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
Russia recently deployed military reinforcements to Abkhazia despite strong objections from Georgia, which has angered Moscow by trying to join NATO. - AFP/vm
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