Visiting US President George W. Bush will be meeting in Bratislava on Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid tensions over Iran and US concerns over Russia's democracy reforms.

Putin and Bush are expected to hold 90-minute talks on Iran, the Middle East peace process, the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and curbing the spread of nuclear weapons.

It is the first summit between the two leaders since Bush kicked off his second term last month and it is believed that the summit would be a barometer for calculating how Washington is likely to deal with Russia during Bush's second term.

Ties between the two countries soured over Russia's opposition to the US-led Iraq war and further cooled amid US concerns over Putin's domestic policy and Moscow's stance on Iran.

Most recently, the events in Russia's neighbor Ukraine which brought Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko to power have again stirred Russian fears of encirclement.

Bush, who came here on Wednesday for his first visit to Slovakia, the last leg of his European tour designed to reconcile transatlantic differences, said Tuesday that he had been told of concerns about Russia by other EU leaders during his talks in Brussels.

Bush also told the Russian ITAR-Tass news agency in an interview that he hoped to invigorate his relationship with Putin during their upcoming summit.

Putin, who is coming to Bratislava on Thursday afternoon, told Slovak media that his nation would pursue a model of democracy befitting its history and traditions, and he hoped that his summit with Bush would be a friendly discussion of global security issues and the fight against terrorism.

During his two-day visit to the East European country, Putin would also hold bilateral talks with Slovak officials.

Source: Xinhua