Bush, Putin to sign nuclear deal

MOSCOW, Russia -- U.S. President George W. Bush has arrived in Moscow for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that will include the signing of a treaty to slash their nuclear arsenals.

Bush, who is attending his first summit on Russian soil, arrived with his wife, Laura, on Thursday evening in Moscow and was met by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin.

Bush and Putin are set to bring a symbolic end to the Cold War with the signing of the treaty which will rid both countries of two-thirds of their nuclear weapons.

But the arrival was overshadowed by a suggestion by Bush that Moscow is contributing to weapons proliferation by its assistance in the building of an Iranian nuclear plant.

Before travelling to Moscow, Bush had bluntly warned Putin to stop providing weapons technology to Iran. "If you arm Iran, you're liable to have the weapons pointed at you," he said.

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He added he planned to tell Putin to handle Iran with caution, and to express U.S. worries that Iran may someday be capable of arming deadly missiles. "That's going to be a problem for all of us, including Russia," Bush said.

Russia has been helping Iran build the Bushehr civilian nuclear power plant which was described by a Bush aide on Thursday as "the single most important proliferation threat there is."

Iran says the plant is for peaceful purposes while Russia rejected the U.S. allegations as "groundless."

About 300 hundred Russians burnt a U.S. flag and denounced Bush as he flew in, but the protests in both the capital and St Petersburg were largely peaceful and no serious incidents were reported.

Bush was flying in from Berlin where the war on terrorism and its possible extension to Iraq was the major issue.

He said there are "no war plans on my desk" over extending the war against terrorism to Iraq.

But, during the 20-hour visit he said President Saddam Hussein was "a dangerous man, a dictator" whom the West had to deal with.

U.S. President spoke to the German parliament, the Bundestag, saying it was important for the allies to confront and overcome unknown threats from a new enemy.

He told politicians that "America and Europe need each other to fight the global war against terror."

"We are defending civilisation itself," Bush said.

He added that NATO needed strengthening with "a new strategy and a new capability."

Earlier, speaking at a joint news conference with Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Bush raised the spectre of Iraq "linking up with an al Qaeda-type organisation" to unleash weapons of mass destruction.

"We've got to use all means at our disposal to deal with Saddam Hussein," the U.S. president added.

At the Bundestag, Bush made the case for a more aggressive war against terrorism, saying the threat "cannot be appeased, and it cannot be ignored."

Bush drew some jeers from those who opposed a wider anti-terror campaign, with socialist MPs unfurling a banner reading: "Bring an end to the war."

At the news conference in a nod to German scepticism of his hard line on Iraq, Bush said Germany had "shouldered a significant burden" in the overall fight against terrorism, "and we're very grateful for that."

Schroeder said Hussein had to be "pressured" to find out what weapons of mass destruction he had.

There was no need to address question of an attack on Iraq because the issue had not yet arisen, Schroeder said.

CNN's White House Correspondent John King said the time lag -- it would be three or four months before any decisions were required -- allowed Schroeder to sidestep a difficult question for him. He had been criticised in Germany for following Bush's line too closely.

The real political difficulties would come when the issue was put on the table, King said.

Iraq had been the "hot" issue of Bush's talks with Schroeder. While overwhelmingly supportive immediately after the terror attacks, European allies have expressed increasing scepticism lately over expanding the war, particularly if it involves seeking to overthrow Hussein.

Chances of Bush making significant headway in Berlin were dashed when German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping suggested on Thursday that Germany did not have the resources to participate in any such operation.

"There is no military planning for Iraq, even if this country presents a real problem for international security," Scharping told German television. "We have no room for a new engagement."

Schroeder has tried to position himself as a staunch anti-terrorism ally without embracing tough action against Iraq. In a German TV interview, he said Iraq was a threat, "and that's why we are together exerting pressure so that Saddam Hussein lets international observers into the country."

The news conference was the first time Bush had faced questions on revelations this month that he was briefed before the September 11 terror attacks that Islamic militants might try to hijack American airplanes.

He said he opposed a special U.S. commission on how the government dealt with terror warnings before September 11, saying he believed the proper forum was the Congressional intelligence committee so sources and methods of intelligence given to the president could be kept secret. "We are still at war," he said.