RUSSIA - Nov. 22 - Bush Meets Putin In Petersburg.

At brief summit in St. Petersburg, Pres. Putin and US Pres. Bush jointly pledge their full support for the newly adopted UN resolution on Iraq and call on Baghdad "to comply fully and immediately" with its disarmament demands or "face serious consequences". But Putin tells reporters that he remains concerned that Washington is only biding its time before launching a military attack on Iraq. He reminds Bush that Osama Bin Laden remains at large and the war against terrorism is far from won. Bush cites the arrest this week of Abd Al Rahim Al Nashiri, Al Qaeda's operations chief in the Gulf (see Arab-US Relations), as evidence of success against terrorists. But Putin follows with doubts about the war on terrorism. Asked whether the US has sought a possible Russian contribution to potential war against Iraq, Putin responds that "we should not forget about those who finance terrorism". Of the 19 participants in Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he says, "16 were citizens of Saudi Arabia. We should not forget about that. Where has Osama Bin Laden taken refuge? They say he is somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan". Pakistan, Putin says, is heavily armed, "including with weapons of mass destruction and we should not forget about that... We agree that we have to make sure that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction in its possession. [But] we do believe that we have to stay within the framework" of the UN resolution. Bush says: "We understand that Russia has got interests [in Iraq], as do other countries. And of course those interests will be honoured". (Bush arrived in St. Petersburg in the afternoon from the NATO summit in Prague on a brief stopover designed to reassure Putin on NATO expansion, to continue US efforts to persuade him to start a political dialogue with Chechen nationalists and to consult on Iraq. In a summit meeting in Prague, NATO invited seven East European nations, including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the first former Soviet republics to join).