SOCHI, Russia, April 5 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush set a low bar for his final meeting Saturday with another lame duck president, Vladimir Putin of Russia, at a Black Sea resort.
Officials said they did not expect to reach agreement on the U.S. plan to install missile shield defenses in Eastern Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported.
"We'll have some more work to do afterward," Dana Perino, Bush's spokeswoman, told reporters on the presidential plane as they flew to Sochi. "But we think the dialogue is headed in the right direction, and that this meeting will be able to push that along even further."
On Saturday, Bush and Putin enjoyed a final presidential dinner, including folk dancing. Serious talks were scheduled for Sunday.
After a period of warmth early in the Bush presidency and especially immediately after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the relationship between Russia and the United States has soured. Putin objects to NATO's eastward expansion and to the missile shield proposal, which would place components in Poland and the Czech Republic.
