Bush Defends Missile Defense System

President Bush speaks about international development, Thursday, May 31, 2007, during an address at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, ahead of next week's Group of Eight Summit. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

Bush said in an interview Friday with BNT of Bulgaria that he wants to diffuse what he called "the latest flare-up" and is "working hard to .... prevent any escalation of rhetoric."

But he also said that he reserves the right to take Russia to task when needed and is "not afraid to so so."

A case in point is another recent dispute, over Kosovo's desire for indepedence.

A phone conversation earlier in the week between Bush and Putin led some in the region to believe the U.S. president had promised to "to rediscuss Kosovo's future." Bush sought to lay that to rest in an interview with Vision Plus TV of Albania. He said he told Putin that "we feel strongly that the Ahtisaari plan is the right way to go," referring to a U.N. resolution supporting independence for Kosovo under international supervision. Russia has hinted it would veto the measure supported by the U.S. and Europe.

On his trip, Bush also is traveling to Albania, where the discussion involving neighboring Kosovo is of great interest, and Bulgaria. He is stopping in Rome, where he will meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time. And at the G-8, the president has scheduled separate sit-downs with outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair and with France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in addition to Putin.

Relations between the United States and Russia, so warm in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have been sinking for years.

Washington has become increasingly concerned about backsliding on democracy and human rights in Russia under Putin's leadership and about worries that Russia uses its vast energy wealth for political purposes.

Moscow, meanwhile, views U.S. activity in its former sphere of influence with growing suspicion.

Notably, Bush referred in the interview to Washington-Moscow ties as "a complex relationship," the same term he repeatedly uses to describe the status of the U.S.'s tricky relations with China. "We've got some areas of agreement and some areas of disagreement."

Under "areas of disagreement," he listed Putin's claims of democratic advances in Russia ("We have got some questions about that") and Moscow's harsh reaction to Estonia's decision to move a memorial to Soviet soldiers killed during World War II ("It sent a confusing signal to us") and Kosovo. Under the common ground heading, he listed cooperation on Iran, North Korea and weapons proliferation generally.