Washington vs Europe agenda

President Bush's European trip was jarred as it began Monday by deteriorating relations with Russia and threatening words from President Vladimir Putin. Bush and Putin will see each other at the annual summit of industrialized nations, beginning Wednesday at the Baltic Sea resort city of Heiligendamm, Germany. In a diplomatic poke in the eye at Putin, Bush bracketed the summit with stops in the Czech Republic and Poland — the two countries where the United States wants to build a missile defense system for Europe. Already complaining of being encircled by NATO's expansion, Putin said putting missile defenses on Russia's doorstep would ignite a new arms race. He threatened to retarget Russia's missiles toward Europe. Bush says the anti-missile program is intended to protect Europe from states like Iran and North Korea, but Putin said neither country possesses the rockets the American system is intended to shoot down.

There is a growing list of irritants in the U.S.-Russian relationship. Russia is unhappy about a U.S.-backed bid for independence for Kosovo. The United States wants Putin to do more to press Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. Seeking a better footing in the relationship, Putin has accepted Bush's invitation for a July 1-2 meeting at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush was expected to face pressure in Heiligendamm over what is widely perceived as U.S. footdragging in combatting global warming. But the president tried to pre-empt critics with his proposal last week challenging major polluting countries to agree on a target for reducing greenhouse gases. Still, Bush's proposal to let each country decide how much to do leaves a gap between Washington on one side and Merkel and the European Union on the other. Merkel had hoped that concrete goals to reduce emissions would be a centerpiece of her leadership of the G-8.