Chirac, Putin meet in Russia

The presidents of Russia and France called for renewed efforts to halt terrorism stretching through Europe and Asia and to tackle the root causes behind it.

Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac, holding talks after an unprecedented tour for a Western leader of a satellite command centre, also said they had "near total convergence" in their views of conflicts in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chirac announced that the Kremlin leader had accepted an invitation to attend high-profile 60th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landings in Normandy - and said it was recognition of the Soviet Union's war effort.

Putin told reporters "terrorist attacks" in Moscow, Madrid and Uzbekistan had "caught the world unawares, without a clear system of joint action worked out despite an obvious threat.

"An effective system of liquidating the international terrorist network and undermining its financial base are needed," he said alongside Chirac at the Krasnoznamensk satellite facility, 40 km west of Moscow.

Chirac called for efforts to remove "the fertile ground in which terrorism develops." Chirac flew into the Russian capital a day after German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder held similar talks with Putin. The two men were the first Western leaders to visit Moscow since Putin easily won re-election three weeks ago.

The French President has smoothed over earlier irritations in ties by praising Russia's post-Soviet achievements and toning down allegations of human rights violations, particularly in the conduct of Russia's campaign to crush Chechen separatists.

He restated France's call for a political solution to the decade-old Chechen conflict, but backed Moscow by acknowledging that "there is also a problem of terrorism to resolve".