It remains to be seen if NATO's backing for the project -- vigorously opposed by Moscow -- will lead Putin to be more conciliatory at what will be his last meeting with Bush as Russia's president.

Their talks will unfold Saturday and Sunday at Sochi, the unofficial summer capital of Russia and venue of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.

The White House is hopeful, and in the wake of the NATO summit in Bucharest when Putin put his views to NATO leaders on Friday in frank fashion, it is open to handing Russia a role in the missile defence shield.

Bush reiterated this week that the system -- with installations in Poland and the Czech Republic -- was aimed "primarily" at deterring feared attacks from "rogue states" in the Middle East.

Russia views it, however, as yet more evidence of NATO pressing up against its western borders, targeting its own deterrent systems, despite Bush's repeated reminders that "the Cold War is over".

Putin's ability to sway NATO was on show in Bucharest when Europeans led by France and Germany -- wary of rattling Moscow too much -- stalled Bush's quest to grant pre-membership status to Georgia and Ukraine.

The best that the two former Soviet republics could get from NATO leaders was a promise of membership at some point in the future.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, briefing White House correspondents in Bucharest, portrayed NATO's common position on missile defence as a "breakthrough".

In their summit declaration, NATO leaders said they "recognise the substantial contribution to the protection of allies from long-range ballistic missiles to be provided by the planned deployment of European-based United States missile defence assets."

Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley, in Bucharest, underscored the significance of those words.

"There has been, over 10 years, a real debate as to whether there is a ballistic missile threat," he said. "I think that debate ended today, when (in the summit declaration) there's a recognition that it is a threat that threatens the alliance."

Rice, also in Bucharest, said the United States was "hopeful" that Russia would come around to "the usefulness and the importance of the measures that the United States has been willing to take".

Before Bush set off to Europe, Hadley said a key objective would be to put measures in place to reassure Russia -- such as an exchange of liaison officers and bilateral consultations on how the missile defence system would swing into action if and when danger was imminent.

earlier related report
Bush in Russia for missile talks with Putin
President George W. Bush arrived here Saturday hoping to soften Russian President Vladimir Putin's opposition to US missile defence plans, but the White House downplayed talk of a breakthrough.

Speaking to reporters travelling on Bush's plane to Sochi, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it would be "premature" to hope for a US-Russia agreement on the US missile scheme.

"We're going to have to do more work after Sochi," she said.

"No one has said that everything would be finalised and everyone would be satisfied."

She said the United States and Russia were "still in the early part of these discussions" but also described the talks as "headed in the right direction."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was more circumspect about the chances of progress.

"Let's wait until tomorrow's negotiations," he said.

The meeting between Bush and Putin at the Russian leader's Black Sea coastal home in southern Russia has been billed by both sides as an attempt to put US-Russian relations on a more solid footing before the two men leave office.

Shortly after his arrival, Bush was shown models of planned sites for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games by Putin. He chuckled when Putin pointed to a small boat and said: "There's the yacht where you'll stay when you come to the Olympics."

Afterwards, the two leaders were joined by Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, for a private dinner at Putin's residence where the atmosphere was described by Dana Perino as "warm, congenial, very comfortable."

Officials said Putin, who leaves the Kremlin next month, and Bush, who leaves the White House in January, were expected to issue a "strategic framework" paper to act as a general roadmap for relations in the years ahead.

Although Bush and Putin have long spoken of their personal friendship, acrimony in US-Russian relations has grown in the past seven years, and both hoped the Sochi talks could put a more positive lustre on their legacy.

"Together they are working to make sure that the transition to their successors is very smooth," Perino said.

But despite the relaxed oceanside setting, it was the tension between Russia and the United States over Washington's missile defence plan that was likely to be in the spotlight in Sochi.

The plan calls for installing nine US interceptor missiles in former Warsaw Pact member Poland and a powerful radar in another ex-Soviet satellite, the Czech Republic.

Bush says the system is needed to protect the United States and its allies from missile attack by "rogue states" like Iran. Putin says Iran poses no missile threat to the United States and sees the US plan as a threat to Russia.

The US plan got a major boost when it was endorsed by the 26 members of NATO at the alliance's summit in Bucharest this week.

After taking some heat last year for essentially ignoring Russia's worries about the missile defence plan, the United States has in the past six months moved to assuage some of Moscow's concerns.

Russia has described those moves as "useful and important" and Washington had voiced hope that Moscow would at least acknowledge in the Sochi document those US moves to address its concerns over the missile system.

Russia has also taken steps to bridge the gap with the United States, in particular proposing use in the US system of a Russian radar station in the ex-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan near Iran's border.

That offer however has so far remained essentially a dead letter, with the United States saying the Russian-controlled radar in Azerbaijan might prove of some use but could be no substitute for the US radar in the Czech Republic.

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