ROSTOCK, Germany - Is a tense meeting in the cards for President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin? "Could be," even Bush admits.

US President George Bush and his wife Laura arrives the official G8 dinner at the Hohen Luckow castle near Heiligendamm, Germany, Wednesday, June 6, 2007. [AP]

The leaders saw each other Wednesday night for the first time since their dispute over putting a US missile defense system in Eastern Europe flared into Cold War-style rhetoric and sent Russia-US relations sliding to their lowest point in decades.

Bush and Putin are attending a summit of the world's eight major industrialized democracies, which opened with an evening of cocktails, dinner and entertainment with spouses at a rural manor.

Their meeting Thursday held the promise of less crystal, more candor.

Washington is getting fed up with Putin for overseeing what the US perceives as an era of muzzled dissent.

The stepped-up criticism from Bush came as Moscow offers strong objections to the proposed missile shield.

Bush administration officials have tried to lower Russia's anger.

Even Putin's warning that a new shield could require Russia to retarget missiles toward Europe earned only a muted reaction from Bush. He dismissed Putin's bellicose talk, suggesting it could be bluster intended more for internal political consumption in Russia, which holds elections next year.

There are other items on the disagreement list, notably Russia's unhappiness with US support for independence for the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo. Russia bristles at what it sees as US meddling in its affairs and its traditional sphere of influence.

Moscow has shown more willingness of late to help the West take on Iran over its nuclear program. Washington wants to preserve this momentum.

"It's a long agenda, reflecting I think the many areas in which the United States and Russia cooperate," said Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser. "They will also, of course, talk about the issues where the United States and Russia do not, at this point, see eye to eye."

The Russians projected a similar air. They said the open hostility was part of a constructive relationship. Yet they reaffirmed disagreements with Washington's view of Russian democracy and dissatisfaction with its arguments for the shield.

Putin next month will become the first world leader during Bush's presidency to come to the Bush family's summer compound on the Maine coast. The two - once so close in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - last met in November, in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Bush was beginning his day with a farewell meeting with departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair, the president's closest ally in Europe, is holding out hope that he can bridge an impasse between Bush and some of the other countries over climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as summit host, is pushing for specific, binding targets for reducing carbon emissions; Bush is against them.

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