Bush democracy speech in Czech Republic

Prague, June 5: US President George W Bush plans today to hail democratic strides made by former Soviet states like the Czech Republic, in a speech that may further inflame tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bush began an eight-day trip to Europe yesterday with his popularity at home at a low point over the Iraq war and tensions abroad over global warming and missile defense.

Visiting a country that broke free of communism with a Velvet Revolution, Bush will meet with Czech officials at the mediaeval Prague Castle.

Later, he will speak at a pro-democracy conference organized by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and ex-Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky.

It was unclear how far Bush will go in attacking the Kremlin over what the United States sees as moves to curb freedoms, but the White House made clear Russia would be mentioned in the speech, along with China.

''The speech tomorrow is going to be an effort by the president to take stock of where we are on the freedom agenda and the democracy agenda,'' said White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

''He'll talk a little bit about the challenge of promoting democracy in countries big countries, in particular, where we have a complex relationship and a number of interests countries like China and Russia,'' he said.

The democracy speech comes amid increasingly heated rhetoric by Moscow toward the United States that has evoked comparisons to the Cold War by some international analysts.

Russia is furious over US plans to put 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic.

It views the missile shield plan as a threat to its national security.

''Rogue States''

But US officials say it is needed to defend against what it calls ''rogue states'' such as Iran and North Korea.

''This is not about encircling Russia or anything else quite the contrary,'' Hadley said.

The United States has invited Russia to participate in the missile defense system and to look at the technology involved.

Putin warned that Russia would aim missiles at Europe if the United States went ahead with the plan, comments that Hadley deemed ''not helpful.'' Bush, whose European tour is organized around the Group of Eight summit later this week in Germany, will hold a one-on-one meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the gathering and is to host him at his family's oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, Maine next month.

Highlighting the US closeness with countries that Moscow considers to be part of its traditional sphere of influence, Bush will stop in Poland after the summit and Albania and Bulgaria after that.

''Part of why he is going there is to remind people of why he is so supportive of these central and Eastern European countries,'' said James Goldgeier, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.

''For a president who is talking a lot about democracy and running into a lot of difficulty bringing his democracy policy to fruition in Iraq, he wants to remind everyone of what is going on in these Eastern European countries,'' he said.

But Goldgeier noted that such visits are irksome to Russia.

Hadley suggested that Bush would try to walk a fine line in the speech on democracy with regard to Russia, and said it would be handled ''in a very responsible way'' by Bush.

''This is not a new issue. We've talked about the issue of democracy in Russia many times over the last several years,'' Hadley said.

Reuters>