May 31, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

ST PETERSBURG, May 30: World leaders celebrated the 300th anniversary of Russia’s old capital on Friday in what is turning into part of a week of the most intense global diplomacy seen in years.

The three-day gala in elegant St Petersburg brings together key players in the bitter debate over the US-led invasion of Iraq, including the leaders of France, Germany and Britain.

US President George W. Bush will arrive on Saturday.

Putin, with a chance to play tsar as he showcased the splendour of a city restored to some elegance by $1.5 billion of renovation, was in effusive mood as he welcomed guests.

“We have striven to do everything so that you, in this circle of friends, will feel at home in the full sense of the word,” he told heads of former Soviet states, the first of the more than 40 world leaders to arrive for the celebrations.

In driving rain near the massive statue of the Bronze Horseman — a tribute to the city’s founder Tsar Peter the Great — he later greeted more guests, among them French President Jacques Chirac, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Both Bush and Blair, his closest ally in the Iraq war, signalled they wanted the meeting to be the start of a rapprochement after the divisions over Iraq.

Before leaving for a number of stops in Europe, Bush said he foresaw no confrontation with France and others, like Russia, that had opposed the war, though he said frustration lingered in the United States over French conduct.

“It’s an opportunity to talk with some who agreed with us on Iraq and some who didn’t,” Bush said of a tour that will also take in next week’s Group of Eight summit in France.

After that, Bush meets Middle East leaders to push his efforts to encourage peace in the region.

And Blair, speaking in Poland, urged Europe to heal the rift with the United States and work together to make the world safe from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

TIGHT SECURITY: Thousands of armed police moved into high gear to head off any terrorist threat to the world dignitaries. A bomb in Chechnya killed three people on Friday, a reminder of violence in the rebel Muslim region that has spread further afield.d a hired luxury cruise liner.

The international airport was shut for two days and the Baltic city’s oil port shut until Monday. Air force planes took to the skies in what turned out to be a vain attempt to disperse clouds.

Large sections of the city have been closed off. With the encouragement of the authorities, many of its 4.5 million people have left for the countryside, making the city easier to police.

Bush will arrive in time to join a dinner on Saturday at the Peterhof palace, Russia’s 18th century answer to Versailles, facing the Baltic Sea. The city, known as Leningrad in Soviet times, was founded on coastal swamps in 1703 by Peter the Great as a “window on the west” for his backward country.

After two days of festivities, Putin will hold private talks with Bush on Sunday before they both fly off to the G8 summit.

On Saturday, Russia will host a summit with leaders of the 15-nation European Union and the 10, mostly former Soviet bloc nations, who plan to join.

Their agenda is topped by the struggle to deal with the complexities of an expanding EU towards Russia’s borders.—Reuters