HEILIGENDAMM, Germany - President Bush said he hoped to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that a Europe-based US missile defense system is not an issue either side should "be hyperventilating about."

US President Bush, left, walks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Thursday June 7, 2007. [AP]

Bush and Putin are seeing each other here for the first time since they clashed over US plans for a missile shield flared into Cold War-style rhetoric.

With US-Russia relations at their lowest point in decades, Putin and Bush will sit down Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of the world's eight major industrialized democracies being held at this seaside resort.

The United State says the shield targets a potential Iranian nuclear weapon, not Russian ones. Russia retorts that's an "insufficient" explanation. Putin has warned that a new shield could require Russia to retarget missiles toward Europe or take other buildup measures.

Trying to tamp down Moscow's anger, Bush officials have argued that it's obvious the defense system isn't aimed at Russia because of its huge arsenal of nuclear rockets.

"A missile defense system cannot stop multilaunch regimes. ... The fact is that you can't stop two, three, four, five missiles," the president said after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He added: "Russia is not a threat. They're not a military threat. They're not something that we ought to be hyperventilating about."

Blair had held out hope that he could bridge an impasse between the United States and some other countries over setting specific targets at the meeting for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as summit host, is pushing for binding targets.

But Bush stuck to his view that specific targets would not be the result of this week's summit, also attended by other European leaders, as well as those from Canada, Japan and Russia.

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