Rice, Putin talk on Iraq stability

? Visiting U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday discussed the next steps necessary to bring stability to Iraq, a country on which Washington and Moscow have rarely seen eye to eye.

The ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies quoted an unidentified Kremlin official as saying Rice brought Putin a letter from President Bush. The official did not discuss the letter’s content.

But U.S. administration officials said Rice’s trip focused on the scheduled June 30 transfer of power to an interim Iraqi administration and a new United Nations resolution on Iraq.

“This whole trip is a discussion on Iraq and the way forward and all that entails — a new U.N. Security Council resolution, increased international participation, the recognition of the interim Iraqi government and basically all the issues that involve the coalition forces being in Iraq,” a senior U.S. administration official said on condition of anonymity.

Putin and Rice talked about “various issues relating to Russian-U.S. cooperation, as well as key international problems, including the situation around Iraq and in the Middle East,” Putin’s office said in a terse statement.

Sergei Karaganov, the head of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, a Russian think tank, said Putin likely would turn a sympathetic ear to Washington’s call for support.

“Putin can help the Americans on Iraq,” Karaganov said.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, also said Russia would likely be more receptive to U.S. initiatives than would many of Washington’s allies in Europe.

“The Europeans are in deep shock after the Iraqi prisoners abuse scandal, while Russia has much stronger nerves,” Lukyanov told The Associated Press.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met with Rice in Washington on the eve of her visit, said no drafts of a U.N. resolution on Iraq had been circulated yet, as the United States and Britain were still exchanging opinions with other U.N. Security Council members.

“I perceive that as a positive sign, since the United States and Britain, who are key proponents of a new resolution, are eager to listen to their partners in the U.N. Security Council,” Lavrov said in comments posted Saturday on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Web site.

The U.S. government plans to hand over control to a caretaker Iraqi government, but the United States will continue to be responsible for security in the country.

Lavrov’s deputy, Yuri Fedotov, said Friday that Russia was prepared to work toward the adoption of a new U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq, but that it first wanted an agreement on what steps should be taken to legitimize a new Iraqi government.