Washington Positively Assesses Results of Kremlin Head's Visit

George Bush's administration believes the Russian presidential administration head Alexander Voloshin's visit completed on Wednesday was "very important and fruitful" for specifying Russia and America's standpoints, the US State Department official representative, Richard Boucher, said at a briefing in Washington.

In Washington the head of the Russian presidential administration met US President George Bush as well as a number of key figures of the US administration including US Vice President Richard Cheney, US State Secretary Colin Powell, Government Chief of Staff Andrew Card, US Presidential National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and others.

According to Boucher, Colin Powell believes his meeting with Alexander Voloshin was "very fruitful" as it allowed conducting "a comprehensive discussion on Russia and America's standpoints" and on the Iraqi issue.

"These negotiations were not wholly devoted to the resolution on Iraq or reduced to discussion of Resolution 1441 alone," Boucher pointed out. "The US State Secretary and the Head of the Russian presidential administration had "extensive negotiations" on such issues as "war against terrorism, threats, the Middle East situation, relations between the US and Russian governments as well as cooperation in providing security, which we conduct combating the common threat." They also touched upon "connection between terrorists and Chechen separatist groups," Boucher said.

The meeting of Powell and Voloshin "allowed both the USA and Russia to understand their standpoints better," Boucher stressed and added that the USA and Russia were currently conducting "intensive negotiations." "Now we will see whether we will be able to bridge the gap between our standpoints at this stage," he said.