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 WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush defended his plan to build a missile defense system in Russia's backyard, even though it has sparked fresh tensions in the already frayed Washington-Moscow relationship. Bush suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to get over it. Russia has reacted to the new system by unleashing several rounds of harsh rhetoric against the United States.
"The Cold War is over," Bush told foreign reporters in an interview that previewed an eight-day trip to Europe next week. "We're now into the 21st century, where we need to deal with the true threats, which are threats of radical extremists who will kill to advance an ideology, and the threats of proliferation."
Bush's eight-day trip, which begins Monday, will include meetings with Putin during and on the sidelines of a summit in Germany of leading industrialized nations. Hoping to normalize relations, the president also this week invited Putin to come to his family's summer compound on the Maine coast July 1-2, a month after the Group of Eight meeting.
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