U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived Sunday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that will cover rebuilding post-war Afghanistan. Dec. 09, 2001

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived Sunday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that will cover rebuilding post-war Afghanistan. Powell's plane landed at the snowy Vnukovo-2 Airport on a two-day visit that is the secretary of state's first to Russia as U.S. foreign policy chief. Powell is scheduled to meet Putin on Monday. Putin was to return to Moscow later Sunday after informal talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schršder in Hanover during a stopover on a flight from a state visit to Greece. On top of Afghanistan, Powell's agenda is likely to include a discussion of the problematic issue of missile defense, the pace of Moscow's integration with NATO and its bid to enter the World Trade Organization.

Powell was also scheduled to take a sightseeing walk in downtown Moscow.

The visit comes after a whirlwind weekend tour of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, two Central Asian countries that pledged to cooperate further with Washington on Afghanistan after offering the use of their bases and airspace.

In Kazakhstan, Powell and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed that their two countries would fight international terrorism but differed on the issue of pipeline routes to export Kazakh oil to Western markets. (Story, page 16.)

"We had a further discussion of all the issues that define the structure of our strategic partnership and relationship," Powell said Sunday.

On Saturday, Powell secured an agreement from Uzbekistan to open a bridge crucial for aid deliveries to Afghanistan. The Friendship Bridge opened Sunday.

"We discussed the humanitarian situation, and in that regard the president confirmed that the bridge would open tomorrow after one last technical check," Powell said.

Uzbekistan was worried about the strength of the bridge and said it needed checks before use for aid deliveries. The United States recently sent military engineers to examine it.

Uzbekistan closed the bridge five years ago to stop violence and Islamic fundamentalism from spilling over the border when the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan.

Powell said he had brought a letter from U.S. President George W. Bush for Uzbek President Islam Karimov thanking him for his support and hoping they would meet in Washington soon.

Earlier Saturday, Powell watched Uzbek schoolchildren in a nongovernment public education program stage a mock election and declare him an honorary citizen in their pretend country "Umid" -- the Uzbek word for hope.

The event was all the more relevant given Karimov's election record. In power since 1991, he is poised to extend his five-year term for a second time up to 2007, and in January 2000 he won more than 92 percent of the vote in an election branded a travesty of democracy by human-rights organizations.

Powell had to cancel a planned stopover in Kyrgyzstan because of bad weather, but he spoke to Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev by telephone from the airplane.

Copyright 2001, Federal News Service Inc.