Putin to host airport meeting with Bush

MOSCOW, Nov 10 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin will host an airport meeting with President George W Bush when Air Force One makes a refuelling stop in Moscow next week, a chance for the two leaders to patch up frayed relations.

A Kremlin spokesman said today Putin would go out to the airport to meet Bush as a gesture of hospitality. The Interfax news agency said the meeting would take place on November 15 as Bush heads east for an Asian economic summit.

''The ... refuelling of the US presidential aircraft had been envisaged as a purely protocol event. However when Putin learned about the fact, he invited the Bush couple to stay in Moscow a bit longer,'' Interfax said, quoting a Kremlin source.

No further details were available but Washington's drive to impose sanctions on Iran and Moscow's desire for an agreement to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are likely to top the agenda.

The United States needs Russian support at the United Nations for a strong Security Council resolution condemning Iran's nuclear programme. Moscow, historically an ally of Tehran, has so far proved reluctant to oblige.

Russia in turn wants U.S. backing for its long-held ambition to join the WTO, a move that could give its economy an important boost.

Washington had been reluctant to agree, saying Russia has been too reluctant to open its meat markets to US imports and to crack down on Internet piracy of films and music.

But a Russian business leader told Reuters earlier today that an outline deal between the US and Russia had been reached over WTO membership. A formal announcement is expected later today.

Bush and Putin will meet separately on the fringes of an Asia economic summit in Hanoi starting on November 18. This could give both leaders a chance to shake hands on a WTO deal.

When Bush first met Putin at a summit in Slovenia in June 2001, he famously declared he had looked into his eyes and seen a man he could trust.

Russian support for the US-led war on terror after the September 11 attacks kept relations good for a time, but ties between the two former Cold War superpowers have deteriorated over the last two years.

Some analysts now describe them as at their worst ebb since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.

Moscow has repeatedly criticised the US invasion of Iraq while Washington has attacked Russia's human rights record and the Kremlin's drive to re-establish state control over key industries.

Bush and Putin last met at the G8 economic summit hosted by Russia in St Petersburg in July.

Reuters SP VV1847