Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush will meet in Bratislava on February 24, 2005.

Putin will be in the Slovak capital on a visit at this time, presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov told Itar-Tass on Monday.

Putin and Bush reached an agreement on the meeting in principle in November when they attended a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Chile.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said back then that the meeting in Bratislava would be a "specially agreed-upon summit".

He stressed that Moscow and Washington had "never deviated from the practice of annual meetings" of the presidents.

During their latest meeting in Santiago, Putin and Bush discussed the entire agenda of the Russian-U.S. relations. They confirmed their interest in using and developing all existing instruments of interaction, and their intention to further cooperation. These issues are likely to be in the centre of attention at the summit in Bratislava as well.

One of them may be U.S. support for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation. Putin said after the talks in Santiago that Bush had promised support on this matter. "I discussed it (Russia's accession to the WTO) separately with the president of the United States, and he promised support to me personally in a private conversation. I hope this will reflect on the negotiating process," Putin said.

The meeting in Bratislava is likely to be followed by other Russian-U.S. summits in 2005. Putin has already invited Bush to Russia for the celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War.

The presidents may also meet with a big degree of probability during traditional annual summits of the Group of Eight in the summer and of the APEC in the autumn.

Source: Itar-Tass