ST. PETERSBURG, - In a tough face-to-face challenge, President Vladimir V. Putin urged President Bush yesterday not to be distracted by Iraq and lose sight of the central target in the war on terrorism, asking during a joint appearance with Bush, "Where has Osama bin Laden taken refuge?"
The Russian president made his remarks after a brief meeting with Bush in Pushkin, outside Putin's native St. Petersburg, at which both leaders largely played down their differences about NATO's eastward expansion and the potential repercussions of war in Iraq.
At Putin's request several weeks ago, Bush altered his schedule to visit Russia yesterday. On Thursday, a NATO summit in Prague agreed to add to the alliance in 2004 seven former Communist nations, including three that were part of the former Soviet Union.
Yesterday's meeting, designed to ease Moscow's concern about the appearance of the West's military alliance on its borders, was itself a sign of Russia's mounting strategic importance as the United States prepares for potential conflict in the Middle East and pursues global terrorism suspects.
The trip produced an important symbolic victory for Bush, as Russia agreed to a joint statement warning Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences." Russia has opposed giving blanket approval for U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf.
The two leaders exchanged warm praise. Bush repeatedly referred to his counterpart as "my good friend," and Putin said the two discussed "practically everything between the sky and the earth."
But other Russian political players expressed concern that the NATO alliance will now stretch to Russia's border.
Putin also offered some sharp advice on Bush's strategy toward Hussein, suggesting the United States should worry about Islamic terrorism first.
Asked directly about Iraq, Putin replied: "We should not forget about those who finance terrorism. Of the 19 terrorists who committed the main attacks on Sept. 11 against the United States, 16 are citizens of Saudi Arabia, and we should not forget about that."
He then wondered aloud where bin Laden had gone, noting that he is believed to be "somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan."
The U.S.-led coalition should make sure that Pakistan is not supporting terrorists or pursuing new weapons of mass destruction, Putin said. Russia agrees with the United States that it is important to "make sure that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction in its possession," he said. But he added that Russia hopes the United States will not act alone to remove the Iraqi leader.
"We do believe that we have to stay within the framework of the work being carried out within the United Nations," Putin said.
His warnings indicated the underlying tensions in the new U.S.-Russian friendship, but Bush seemed to shrug off the disagreements.
"Like other good friends I've had in my life, we don't always agree 100 percent of the time," the U.S. president said.
On Thursday, he assured the Russians that "of course those interests will be honored" in any post-disarmament or postwar situation in Iraq. Russia is worried that a new regime in Baghdad would not make good on $7 billion in Soviet-era debts.
Senior administration officials said they saw no reason for concern in Putin's remarks. "He's expressed those kinds of concerns for a while, and he's talking about a broader problem," one senior official said. "And that's his view and not ours."
Before flying last night to Lithuania - one of the former Soviet republics, along with Estonia and Latvia, invited to join NATO - Bush sought to assure Putin that Russia had nothing to fear from the expansion of the alliance.
"The mood of the NATO countries is this: Russia is our friend," Bush said. "We've got a lot of interests together. We must continue our cooperation in the war against terror. ... And Russia should welcome the expansion of NATO."
Few in Russia appeared ready to welcome the alliance's arrival "just a few dozen miles from St. Petersburg," as Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko put it.
It was only two years ago that Moscow threatened to use force to prevent the Baltic states from joining NATO. As part of his pro-Western stance, Putin has taken the position that Moscow views the expansion as unnecessary but "not as a tragedy."
Other members of Russia's political elite have been slow to follow Putin's lead.
"The Baltic states are small, but their territory borders on Russia's," said Col. Gen. Valeri Manilov, a senior Russian legislator. "And since NATO was created for defense purposes, the question arises, whom are they defending themselves against near our territory? Russia is not afraid of NATO, but we see the danger of new dividing lines in Europe."
Many Russian commentators worry that NATO will continue to see Moscow as an enemy, despite the rhetoric of its leaders, and that the alliance will further expand into former Soviet territory. NATO leaders at the summit in Prague made no secret that the alliance plans closer ties with the former Soviet Central Asian republics.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, at the close of the NATO summit's Council of 20, a body created last year to allow Russia to participate in some alliance activities, said: "We have always said that any NATO enlargement without a change of direction to its military program would be out of sync with the idea of global security."