Bush expects heart-to-heart with Putin in Russia

NEPTUN, Romania (Reuters) - Seven years after saying he had peered into Vladimir Putin's soul, U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday called his coming summit with the Russian leader their last chance for a "heart-to-heart."

Bush, like Putin in the twilight of his presidency, meets the Russian president on Saturday at a villa in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to try to ease relations strained by differences over missile defence, Kosovo independence and NATO expansion.

"I have no animosity toward President Putin," Bush told reporters at a news conference with Romanian President Traian Basescu in Neptun, on Romania's Black Sea coast, shortly before a NATO summit that Putin was due to attend as a special guest.

Bush said after his first meeting with Putin in 2001 that he trusted him after gaining a "sense of his soul." But that was before Putin cracked down on political opponents and independent media.

Critics have roundly mocked Bush as naive for believing Putin was committed to lasting democratic change.

Officials in the Bush administration are reluctant to say as much, and maintain that both countries have benefited from the personal chemistry the two leaders developed.

While Bush said nothing about trust this time, he said he always appreciates Putin's candour and expects nothing less when they meet for the last time before Putin steps down from the presidency in May.

"This is a good chance for me to sit down and have yet another heart-to-heart with him," Bush said.

To a reporter who suggested the farewell meeting could be a "diplomatic train wreck", Bush said: "I call it an opportunity to sit down and have a good frank discussion again."

Bush said he would try to soothe Putin's concerns about NATO's expansion on Russia's borders and a U.S. plan for a missile defence shield partly based in eastern Europe, the former Soviet sphere of influence.

The meeting could also help Bush gauge how much power Putin will wield behind the scenes after Dmitry Medvedev, his protege, takes over as president next month. Putin is widely expected to become prime minister.

(Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Timothy Heritage)