President Bush's National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, faced tough questions from President Vladimir Putin and senior Russian ministers yesterday, after Moscow's ambassador to Iraq accused US troops of deliberately raking his convoy with gunfire near Baghdad. Dan McLaughlin in Moscow writes
Ms Rice came to Moscow to soothe US-Russian relations that have frayed under the pressure of fierce disagreement over war in Iraq. But she faced a storm of protest after five people were injured on Sunday when Russian diplomatic cars came under fire while leaving bomb-shattered Baghdad for Syria.
Ms Rice, a Russian speaker, gave Mr Putin a message from President Bush, and discussed future co-operation between the two nations, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Russian leader also expressed his "serious concern" over Sunday's shooting.
Neither US nor Iraqi forces have accepted responsibility for the incident, and a Russian reporter on the scene said that the convoy had been caught in crossfire outside the Iraqi capital.
But after arriving yesterday in Syria, Moscow's envoy to Baghdad said US troops had intentionally opened fire on his car.
"They shot at us for 30 to 40 minutes, and it was obvious that we were foreigners," Mr Vladimir Titorenko said in comments shown on NTV television.
"The economic adviser tried to convince them with hand signals not to shoot at us, but they just kept on firing."
Mr Titorenko, who had a bandage on one finger, said Iraqi civilians had been killed in a car nearby, and that locals had helped the diplomats get to hospital, where one of them needed an operation on bullet wounds. Reports from Baghdad said his life was not in danger.
Mr Andrei Murtazin, a reporter for state-run Channel One who was travelling with the ambassador, said a military expert had identified bullets retrieved from the damaged cars as those from an M-16 rifle, of the type used by US forces.
The Kremlin said Ms Rice had also met Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov, Defence Minister Mr Sergei Ivanov, Security Council chief Mr Vladimir Rushailo, and Kremlin Chief of Staff Mr Alexander Voloshin.
They discussed US-Russian co-operation in several areas, the Kremlin said, including combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying talks between Mr Ivanov and Ms Rice had lasted for more than an hour and that Sunday's shooting had been discussed. Upon leaving the Foreign Ministry, Ms Rice said only that the meeting had been "very good". She headed to Belfast last night to meet President Bush for talks with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair.
Mr Bush spoke to Ms Rice after she arrived in Moscow on Sunday, the White House said.
The day before, he had a telephone conversation with Mr Putin, during which the Kremlin said both leaders had stressed the need for continuing dialogue and co-operation despite disagreement over Iraq.
Mr Putin has tempered his criticism of the war after seeing relations with Washington take a sharp dive, amid US accusations that Russian firms had sold arms to Baghdad, and the fears of Russian oil companies that their contracts in Iraq would be torn up.