BRATISLAVA, Feb 24: US President George Bush said on Thursday he had agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a brief summit that Iran and North Korea should not have nuclear weapons.

"We agreed that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon," Mr Bush said at a joint news conference with Mr Putin. The United States believes Iran is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb under the cover of developing nuclear energy capability with Russian help.

Mr Bush also said he frankly told Mr Putin about Western concerns over the course of Russian democracy, but that the United States and Russia had more in common than what they disagreed on.

"It is in my country's interest that Russia be a strong and viable partner with the United States," Mr Bush said. Asked what response he got from Mr Putin about democracy, Mr Bush said: "All I can tell you is he said 'yes meant yes' when we talked about values that we share."

Mr Putin responded by saying Russia made a decision to become a democratic state 14 years ago and would never return from that path. "Russia has made its choice in favour of democracy," he said. "This is our final choice and we have no way back. There can be no return to what we used to have before."

Western and Russian civil rights campaigners accuse Mr Putin of restricting democracy by abolishing the election of provincial governors, pursuing a legal vendetta against the Yukos oil company and tightening the Kremlin's grip on the media.

They also fear he is trying to stifle democratic changes across the ex-Soviet bloc, with Russian reluctance to accept free elections in Ukraine often cited as the latest example. -Reuters