Russia and the United States, upbeat after striking a breakthrough bilateral deal on Moscow's entry into the WTO, appeared keen on Sunday to cooperate in handling other tricky issues like Iran or North Korea.
But Russian officials were fast to say Washington should not expect them to change immediately their stand on Iran's nuclear programme, which had put the two major powers at odds.
"We talked together about our common interests and about how we are going to work together to solve some of the world's problems, including Iran and North Korea," US President George W. Bush said after talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
The two met on the fringes of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Vietnamese capital two hours after their trade officials signed the deal on Russia's $1 trillion economy joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
"I agree with George that this creates a favourable atmosphere for all our activities, including solving complicated international issues," said Putin, clearly relaxed after marathon trade talks with the United States.
NO BIG CHANGE ON IRAN
The two did not expand on their discussion, but differences over how to handle Iran's nuclear ambitions have been a key irritant in increasingly rocky bilateral relations along with the WTO talks, now defused by the agreement in Hanoi.
Washington accuses Iran of planning to obtain its own nuclear bomb and together with Western allies wants the UN Security Council to penalise Tehran with sanctions.
A draft resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany and backed by Washington demands nations prevent the sale or supply of equipment, technology or financing that would contribute to Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programmes.
But Russia has submitted amendments cutting roughly half of the draft and leaves nations to decide which items Iran can buy.
Russian officials have said any sanctions should encourage Tehran to more talks, rather than push it into a corner.
After the initial announcement of the WTO deal earlier this month, political analysts speculated that Putin could respond in kind to Bush and become more co-operative on Iran.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dispelled such suggestions.
"The resolution, which will ultimately be adopted by the Security Council, will ... support IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) efforts and formulate steps needed to answer questions which IAEA has regarding Iran, no more than that," Lavrov said after the Bush-Putin talks.
He also said the two leaders tasked him and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work on merging their separate initiatives to create international uranium-processing centres which would allow any country to develop atomic energy without triggering suspicions of harbouring military ambitions.
"The idea is ripe that a legal framework for the existence of such centres should be worked out," he told reporters.
Speaking on North Korea, Lavrov said Putin and Bush supported the idea of resuming in December six-party talks also including both Koreas, Japan and China. The talks are designed to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons.