I'm Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English.
President Bush was in Europe this week for the first time sincehis re-election in November.
On Thursday he met with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.They discussed Russian democracy and the fight against terrorism.The two leaders also said Iran and North Korea should not havenuclear weapons. On Friday Mister Putin told reporters that he issatisfied with the meeting.
Bratislava was the last city visited by Mister Bush on hisfive-day trip to Europe. In addition to Slovakia, he visited Belgiumand Germany.
President Bush said he placed importance on a free press andobservance of the rule of law during his talks with Mister Putin.Mister Putin rejected any suggestions that Russia is restrictingdemocracy. In his words, "There can be no return to what we hadbefore." The Russian leader also says he and Mister Bush are "veryclose" on a number of issues such as Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
They called for speeding up negotiations for Russian entry intothe World Trade Organization. They also said they would worktogether on international ways to improve the safekeeping of nuclearmaterial.
An agreement calls for Russia and the United States to shareinformation about improving nuclear security. They are to jointlydevelop emergency plans to fight nuclear and radiological attacks.And they are to work together to develop a replacement for highlyenriched uranium fuel used in research reactors. The goal is toprevent the uranium from being used to make nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday, Mister Bush met in Mainz, Germany, with ChancellorGerhard Schroeder. The German leader had strongly opposed the war inIraq. But Mister Schroeder says Iraq's future is what is importantnow.
Mister Bush called Europe "America's closest ally." And, he said,"in order for us to have good relations with Europe we have to havegood relations with Germany."
The two leaders agreed to cooperate on environmental issues, eventhough the United States is not part of the Kyoto treaty. The UnitedStates and Germany are to increase efforts to develop cleaner energytechnologies. The aim is to reduce pollution and the industrialgases blamed for atmospheric warming, without limiting economicgrowth.
Several thousand demonstrators marched in Mainz to protest thevisit by Mister Bush. There were also protests earlier in Brussels,the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. There, thepresident met with European Union leaders. And the North AtlanticTreaty Organization announced that all twenty-six of its memberswould help train Iraqi security forces. But several nations,including Germany, say they only want to do training outside Iraq.
In The News, in VOA Special English, was written by JerilynWatson. I'm Steve Ember.