Bush, Putin agree to cooperate on missile shield plan
POSTED: 1:34 p.m. EDT, June 7, 2007
Story Highlights• Putin tells Bush he will drop objections to missile shield if it's in Azerbaijan
• U.S. president says better to work together than to create tensions
• Security breached near G8 summit venue; police chase Greenpeace boats
• G8 leaders seal deal aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Thursday to cooperate on missile-defense systems, cooling tensions between the two leaders at the G8 summit in Germany.

They had met one-on-one privately during the summit of leaders of the world's richest nations, being held in the resort of Heiligendamm on northern Germany's Baltic coast.

"We have an understanding about common threats, but we have differences. The difference is the ways and means in which we can overcome these threats," Putin said after meeting with Bush.

"It's much better to work together than to create tensions," Bush said. "He expressed his concerns to me. He is concerned that the missile-defense system is not an act that a friend would do."

Earlier Putin told Bush that Moscow would drop its objections to a planned missile-defense shield if the radar-based system was based in Azerbaijan instead of the Czech Republic and Poland, as Washington has proposed.

Putin's proposal to drop objections if the system were set up in Azerbaijan was a welcome surprise, as Moscow's rhetoric condemning the shield and the relationship between Russia and the United States were beginning to be reminiscent of the Cold War era.

Bush had previously said the plan was meant to block possible attacks from Iran and other nations, but Putin was concerned the systems would be on Russia's doorstep -- in Poland and the Czech Republic -- and could be converted into offensive weapons.

Last weekend, Putin warned that his country could aim nuclear weapons at European targets unless Washington abandoned its proposal. Both men have tried to calm the rhetoric since then.

"They're not a military threat. They're not what we should be hyperventilating about. What we ought to be doing is figuring out ways to work together," Bush told reporters following his last meeting with Tony Blair before he steps down as British prime minister later this month. (Chemistry on show)

Putin said he had suggested using an existing radar station in neighboring Azerbaijan, which covers all of Europe.

"The existing agreement makes it possible for us to do this. And the president of Azerbaijan stressed he would be glad to contribute to world security and stability," Putin said. He said he met with the Azerbaijan president on Wednesday.

Riot police use water cannons
The G8 summit's host, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said G8 leaders had sealed a deal that will lead to "substantial" cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and a post-Kyoto deal by 2009.

She said G8 countries had agreed to consider her aim for a 50 percent cut in emissions by 2050, but leaders do not appear to have committed to any specific targets.

Riot police blasted protesters with water cannon to keep them away from the security fence surrounding the summit venue, while other protesters led police on a boat chase on the Baltic Sea.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen said the incursion by Greenpeace environmental activists in boats was considered a serious breach as summit organizers had been bringing delegates in by sea after protesters blocked roads around the venue.

Riot police clashed with protesters near the main entrance along the 12-kilometer (7-mile) security fence sealing off the summit, firing repeated blasts from four water cannons.

About 200 officers stood between nearly 2,000 protesters and the razor wire-topped fence, Reuters reported. The activists tried to charge them but were repelled with several volleys of water blasts.

'Keep promises'
Among those participating in the summit are pop stars and philanthropists Bono and Bob Geldof, who said the bickering over the anti-missile systems is overshadowing the anti-poverty agenda.

Bush agreed, saying Thursday that the summit should stick to the priorities of climate change and aid to Africa, including the fight against HIV/AIDS. He and Merkel drew up the agenda Wednesday.

"They are not keeping their promises" to help Africa, Bono told CNN's Ed Henry in an interview Wednesday.

At the Gleneagles, Scotland, G8 Summit in 2005, boosted by the Live 8 concerts and the efforts of Bono and Geldof, world leaders agreed, at the urging of Blair, to a huge program of debt reduction for the "forgotten continent" of Africa, and massive boost in efforts to curb AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

G8 leaders in 2005 promised an extra $25 billion for Africa by 2010, according to Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an advocacy organization working to eradicate poverty and AIDS in Africa.

DATA also encourages African leaders to support democracy, accountability and transparency.

Bono, a board member, has persistently lobbied the governments of the world's leading industrial democracies, which make up the G8, to keep their financial commitments.

At the end of 2006, just $2.3 billion of the $25 billion promised by G8 leaders by 2010 -- not including debt relief -- had been paid, Drummond told CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley.

"The G8 as a whole in 2006 did about half of the aid levels they promised -- just under half. They're planning for 2007 to do just under a third of what they promised. So there's a pattern of off-track behavior," Drummond said.

According to DATA, Britain and Japan are meeting their promises.

Canada, the United States and Germany are slipping behind, and France and Italy are at the bottom.

Bush said Thursday the United States was trying to do its part.

"I asked Congress to double our initial commitment and approve an additional $30 billion for HIV-AIDS prevention, for care, and for treatment over the next five years," he said.