Bush Opens Europe Trip on Jarring Note

President Bush speaks about immigration reform, Friday, June 1, 2007, in the Eisenhower Executive Office building across from the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- President Bush's European trip was jarred as it began Monday by deteriorating relations with Russia and threatening words from President Vladimir Putin.

Bush and Putin will see each other at the annual summit of industrialized nations, beginning Wednesday at the Baltic Sea resort city of Heiligendamm, Germany. In a diplomatic poke in the eye at Putin, Bush bracketed the summit with stops in the Czech Republic and Poland _ the two countries where the United States wants to build a missile defense system for Europe.

Already complaining of being encircled by NATO's expansion, Putin said putting missile defenses on Russia's doorstep would ignite a new arms race. He threatened to retarget Russia's missiles toward Europe.

Bush says the anti-missile program is intended to protect Europe from states like Iran and North Korea, but Putin said neither country possesses the rockets the American system is intended to shoot down.

"It's a defense against something which does not exist," the Russian president said. "It would be funny if it was not so sad."

Flying to Europe with Bush, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley reacted cautiously to Putin. "There has been some escalation in the rhetoric," he said. "We think that is not helpful. We would like to have a constructive dialogue with Russia on this issue. We have in the past."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Putin to cool down.

"This isn't the Soviet Union and we need to drop the rhetoric that sounds like what the United States and the Soviet Union used to say about each other and realize it is the United States and Russia in a very different period," Rice said on the way to an Organization of American States meeting in Panama City, Panama.

"It doesn't really help anybody to start threatening the Europeans," she said. "You cannot launch a threat at Europe that is separable from the United States."

Bush and his wife, Laura, arrived late Monday evening. In his only address of an eight-day trip through six countries, Bush will make a speech on Tuesday about supporting global democratic aspirations. Hadley said Russia, accused of backpedaling on democracy, would come up in that speech because "there are no exceptions to the freedom agenda."

"So obviously when we look for the progress of freedom and democracy we look for the progress of freedom and democracy in Russia and China," Hadley said.

Putin's sharp words at Washington _ and Britain, as well _ set an unusually chilly tone for the three-day summit in Heiligendamm. Leaders of the eight participating countries _ the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan _ typically mask their differences in statements that have been watered down to find consensus.