Bush congratulates Medvedev on telephone

Moscow, Mar 5: US President George W Bush on Tuesday called up President-elect Dmitry Medvedev to congratulate him on his victory in the Russian presidential election.

During the telephonic conversation, Bush expressed the hope for further constructive work with Medvedev. ''Bush congratulated Medvedev on his election as Russian President and stressed that he intended joint constructive work in the remaining period of his presidential term,'' a spokesman for Medvedev's office told RIA Novosti news agency.''Both sides expressed intention to continue traditional mutual, confidential, honest and open contacts which developed between Putin and Bush and which had, as a principle, important significance for the development of Russian-US relations,'' he said.

Mr Bush and Mr Medvedev ''expressed the desire to preserve the positive achievements of cooperation that have been accumulated, achievements that make it possible to join forces to address problems that at times emerge in the course of interstate interaction,''he said.

Both leaders decided to remain in touch on a regular basis, he added.

UNI