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CNN Sunday Morning

Bush, Putin Talk Missile Defense

Aired July 22, 2001 - 07:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We'll begin in Genoa, Italy where the G8 meetings wrapped up just a few hours ago. Leaders settled some but not all of the issues on the table. There is still disagreement over the Kyoto Treaty and global warming. Right now, President Bush is meeting one-on-one with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two leaders are expected to talk about economics and defense systems.

The summit was also the stage for two days worth of violent protests. This morning, Italian police launched a pre-dawn raid, hoping to prevent more clashes. CNN's Alessio Vinci is in Genoa with more details.

Alessio, it's nice to see you without a gas mask on this morning.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

Well, yes, it is a lot quieter inside the red zone than outside the red zone. That's where the protesters have been meeting and protesting for the past two days. As you mentioned, U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin are meeting as this time.

The two leaders addressing a wide range of issues, chief among them of course is the U.S. plans to build a new missile defense system. Russian is opposing this, saying that this could start a new armament race. The U.S. President Bush saying that he will go ahead with it despite concerns among the Russians and not only the Russians but also some of the European Union leaders.

However, this would mean that the U.S. in about three months time would violate a 1972 ABM, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty on arms control. Mr. Bush arguing the fact that that treaty was signed was when Russia, then the Soviet Union, was an enemy of the United States and that therefore, now that Russian and the United States are more -- are friendly countries, that treaty is no longer valid or anyway should be revised.

Meanwhile, the world leaders, as the G8 Summit came to an end -- that after the final communicate, they deplored the violence that was -- that marred this summit with a death of one protester that was killed by a police officer on the first day of the protest.

But they also vowed to work on narrowing the gap between the rich and poor nations by providing effective development assistance. "We are determined", the commutate says, "to make globalization work for all of our citizens and especially the world's poor."

They have also vowed to continue work on the death relief but no new initiative was announced on how some of the most rich countries in the world could relief some of the deaths that the poorest countries in this world have incurred.

Meanwhile, most of the protesters have already left Genoa last night. Police, however, raided overnight the headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum, which is the group, which was uniting the large majority, the larger group of the protest movement here in Genoa. Ninety-two people were arrested during that raid, of which 60 of whom -- 61 were wounded in what has been described by many eyewitnesses there as an extremely violent police operation.

However, police there confiscated most of cocktails, knives and large hammers, helmets, wood and steel sticks. They also found a lot of the material that was stolen by reporters. There was a lot of cameras there, some gas masks.

The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, just ended a press conference some 20 minutes ago. He said it was too bad that this summit will be remembered for its violence.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Alessio Vinci, thanks for the update.

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