US President George W Bush is in Russia to assure President Vladimir Putin that Nato's eastward expansion is in Moscow's "best interests".

The talks in Saint Petersburg follow the Nato summit in Prague, where the alliance invited seven former communist countries to join.

	Summit agenda Seven countries offered membership by 2004 New strike force for high-intensity warfare New focus on fighting terrorism Command structure to be streamlined Clickable guide: Expanding Nato

"Yesterday, we took a huge step towards peace and freedom," Mr Bush said, before leaving his fellow heads of state.

Mr Putin did not attend the summit, in order to avoid appearing to welcome Nato's expansion into the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - that were once part of the Soviet Union.

But Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, representing Russia at the summit, welcomed Nato's new emphasis on combating terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

At the beginning of their talks in Saint Petersburg's Catherine Palace, Presidents Bush and Putin demanded that Iraq comply "fully and unconditionally" with all United Nations Security Council resolutions on disarmament.

Baghdad has agreed to the latest resolution on disarmament, paving the way to a return of weapons inspectors to Iraq.

Earlier, Mr Ivanov said Russia and Nato would increasingly work together as long as the alliance focused on "opposing new threats and challenges of this contemporary world".

He added that both sides were determined to promote a new post-Cold War "architecture of security".

Kuchma: No-one will shake his hand

Apart from the Baltic states, Nato on Thursday formally invited Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to join the alliance.

Three other former Warsaw pact members - Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - joined in 1999.

President Bush listed the summit's main achievements as:

• The expansion of Nato
• Agreement to modernise military forces
• Decision to build a 20,000-strong rapid response force
• Working in harmony to meet the new threats of the 21st Century

On Friday, the Nato leaders who remained in Prague took part in a session of the 46-member Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) - which includes 27 non-Nato countries, from Ireland to Uzbekistan.

Next frontier

Friday's talks also focused on threats posed by terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Not everyone approves of Nato's expansion

Afterwards, Nato Secretary General George Robertson told reporters Nato's links with partner countries had been revitalized.

"We agreed we face common threats and common challenges and that our work must intensify," Lord Robertson said.

At the end of the news conference two protestors threw tomatoes towards Lord Robertson, shouting in Russian that Nato was "worse than the Gestapo" - before being escorted out by security guards.

Delegates at the EAPC meeting were arranged in French rather than English alphabetical order, so that the United Kingdom and United States representatives were not placed next to President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine.

Mr Kuchma is suspected by the US and UK of authorising the sale of advanced radar systems to Iraq, in contravention of UN sanctions.

He was advised not to attend the summit, but came uninvited.