The two men have clashed over Russia's war legacy

More than 50 world leaders, including President George W Bush, are in Moscow to pay tribute to the Soviet people's sacrifice in World War II.

The ceremony in Red Square is the latest in a series of events across Europe marking the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.

Mr Bush will be the first US president to attend a Red Square parade.

But his visit has been overshadowed by disagreements with Russia's Vladimir Putin over the legacy of the war.

The two men discussed the issue on Sunday at a private dinner, one day after Mr Bush had publicly described the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe as "one of the greatest wrongs of history".

That remark had prompted the Russian president to respond that it was the Soviet Union which had saved the world from defeat by the Nazis.

"For three long years, the Soviet army in fact almost single-handedly battled against fascism ," Mr Putin told veterans from Russia and other former Soviet republics in an address at the Bolshoi Theatre on Sunday.

More than 40 million people had lost their lives by the time World War II ended in Europe on 8 May 1945, including 27 million from the Soviet Union.

Other world leaders expected at Monday's ceremony in Moscow include French President Jacques Chirac and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

(BBC)

sacrifice: loss or giving up of something of value, esp. for what is believed to be a good purpose（牺牲）

fascism : a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government（法西斯主义）