US President Mr George W. Bush arrived today in the Russian city of St Petersburg for talks with President Vladimir Putin, Interfax news agency reported.
Mr Bush was to travel to the nearby village of Pushkin, where he will meet Putin for 80-minute talks set in the splendour of the tsarist Catherine Palace.
The two leaders are expected to compare notes on the US-declared "war on terror" and the threat of military action in Iraq.
The US president will leave Russia late tonight, flying on to Lithuania, one of the former Soviet republics that was offered NATO membership yesterday.