Bush plans Moscow journey, hopes for warm weather

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush said Thursday he has accepted an invitation to visit his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow early next year, to grow a budding friendship between the two, and capitalize on discussions held this week in the United States.

"We haven't figured out a time yet," the president said, "but in that I'm from Texas, and kind of like the warm weather, I was hoping to wait a couple of months."

Bush and Putin appeared together at a Crawford, Texas, high school on Thursday and answered questions posed by students and residents of Bush's adopted hometown.

Bush's private ranch is situated nearby. He brought Putin and the Russian first lady to Crawford at midweek to introduce them to Texas, and continue their talks on issues of missile defense and weapons proliferation.

Bush announced the pending trip when one of the students asked him directly when he planned to go to Russia.

Bush said he hopes to travel to both Moscow and Putin's hometown, St. Petersburg.

The friendship between the two continues to flourish, Bush said, adding that he believed their mutual affinity would help them ford serious philosophical gaps. "We have met four times now," Bush said, standing at the high school podium, with Putin and a Russian translator standing to his immediate right. "We have made a lot of progress on key issues, (but) there is more work to be done.

"I believe the Russia-U.S. relationship is one of the most important relationships we can have, and the stronger it is, the more likely it is that the world can be at peace."

Putin, in turn, expressed confidence that Bush was someone whom he could trust.

"President Bush is a man who does what he says," the Russian leader said. "I can assure you the Russian people fully share the commitment to work with the American people."

The two presidents held a three-day summit in Washington and on the Crawford property, but have made no breakthrough in the dispute over the U.S. missile defense program and the administration's related desire to set aside the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. They did reach a consensus earlier in the week on reducing each nation's stockpile of nuclear warheads, but a great deal of work will have to be accomplished to make that a reality.

"After long consultations with people inside our government, I announced that we were going to reduce our nuclear arsenal to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads over the next decade. That is a tangible accomplishment," Bush said. "(President Putin) too will make an announcement at some point in time."

"Anytime leaders can come together and sit down and talk about key issues… it will make relations stronger in the long run," Bush said. "There's no doubt the United States and Russia don't agree on every issue, but you probably don't agree with your mother on every issue," Bush told the students. "But you still love her, don't you?"

The two presidents' aim for their personal relationship, Bush said, is to assure that the bilateral relationship stays strong long past the time when their terms in office draw to a close. Part of assuring close cooperation, he said, is continued cooperation in the multi-pronged campaign against international terrorism.

Putin plans to travel to New York from Crawford at the end of this week. There, he will tour the World Trade Center site.