NATO-bound Bush to visit Russia, Lithuania, Romania

Bush arrives Wednesday in the Czech capital, where the alliance members are expected to vote to admit new members for the second time since the Soviet Union collapsed, said Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. There, Bush will meet separately with Czech President Vaclav Havel and Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla; Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer; French President Jacques Chirac; and NATO Secretary General George Robertson. On Friday, a day after NATO votes to admit new members, Bush will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg and discuss the transforming relationship between Moscow and the alliance. Later that day, Bush will head to Vilnius, where he will have a bilateral meeting with Lithuania's president and a joint meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Bush will then travel to Bucharest, Romania, where he will meet with Romanian President Ion Iliescu and make remarks to the Romanian people at a square in central Bucharest.