"Russia is a true partner of Britain and the United States"

In an exclusive interview for the programme, President Putin told Sir David Frost that his country is a true partner of Britain and the United States, despite recent differences over Iraq.

The interview took place ahead of his state visit to Britain this week. This will be the first such visit by a Russian leader to the United Kingdom in a hundred-and-thirty years.

With regard to Iraq, President Putin said that there were strong practical reasons for the coalition partners to involve Russian firms in the task of rebuilding Iraq.

We should be realistic President Putin

"We should be realistic and the reality is that the situation in Iraq is very difficult indeed and it will become even more difficult if we fail to understand that we need to work together to get the situation back to normal," he said.

Mr Putin, who publicly mocked Tony Blair on his last visit to Moscow over the coalition's failure to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, hinted that he had information about the whereabouts of Saddam.

With regard to whether or not his country has intelligence not available to the West, President Putin said "You may be right about that, but you and everyone who follows developments in the Middle East know how complex these problems are".

He also said his country will continue helping Iran to develop its nuclear programme, despite international opposition. He said he would not let the issue of nuclear proliferation be used to squeeze Russian companies out of the Iranian market.

Kashmir conflict

Sir David Frost also spoke to the President of Pakistan, General Musharraf during his visit to London last week. London was the first stage of his biggest international tour since seizing power in 1999. He will travel on to the US, France and Germany.

He spoke to Sir David Frost about the on-going difficulties of Kashmir, the possibility of sending Indian troops to Iraq as part of peacekeeping operations and the current situation with regard to the Taliban movement.

Euro-zone tensions

Sir Edward George joined Sir David in the studio, for an interview ahead of his imminent retirement as Governor of the Bank of England. Sir Edward has been in charge of the Bank for the past ten years and will "clear his desk" at the end of this month.

Five economic tests for membership not met Sir Edward George

On the subject of the euro-zone, Sir Edward said that "tensions" still remained within the euro-zone economies, which were making the setting of interest rates difficult.

He said he was not surprised that the Treasury had concluded that the five economic tests for British membership had not been met.

Francine Stock and Richard Ingrams reviewed the Sunday newspapers

He said that although the strengthening of the euro against the pound had eased some of the problems, it was still difficult to assess what would be the right exchange rate for Britain to join.

"It is a lot better than it was a year ago. It is an incredible kind of art to know what's exactly an acceptable, sustainable exchange rate," he told Sir David.

Francine Stock, broadcaster and novelist and journalist Richard Ingrams joined Sir David for his review of the Sunday newspapers.

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