Bush, Putin to meet in US in early July

With US-Russian relations under heavy strain, President George W. Bush and President Vladimir Putin will meet July 1-2 in a US sea resort for a wide-ranging discussion of world affairs, administration officials said Wednesday. The two also will see each other next week in Heiligendamm, Germany, during the annual Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations. The US meeting will be at Kennebunkport, Maine, in the far northeastern United States, where Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, has an oceanfront compound.