Bush and Putin bank on friendship to heal rifts

By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will hope his personal chemistry with Russia's Vladimir Putin can ease their countries' rifts one last time when he goes next week to stay at the Russian leader's Black Sea villa.

Bush said when he first met Putin seven years ago he "was able to get a sense of his soul" and since then their warm rapport has helped limit the damage from a series of rows that have turned ties between their administrations distinctly chilly.

The U.S. leader will fly from a NATO summit next week in Bucharest to join Putin at his vacation residence in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi -- probably their last one-to-one meeting before the Kremlin leader steps down in May.

They will be hoping the pine-scented seaside air and their friendship will be the missing ingredients needed to reach agreement on thorny issues, chief among them Washington's plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe.

"(It will be) warm feelings all around, opportunities to do what they do best, which is to show what great friends they are," said Rose Gottemoeller, a former U.S. arms control official who heads the Carnegie Moscow Centre, a think tank.

Like Putin, Bush is coming the end of his term in office and he hopes to use the summit to agree on a U.S.-drafted strategic framework document that will allow both leaders to bequeath a stable relationship to their successors.

"Bush and Putin both want to be remembered for contributing to peace and not increasing tensions," said a Western diplomat.

There is consensus on counter-terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation items in the document, but the missile shield is a major sticking point.