THE German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, and President Boris Yeltsin called for an end to quarrels over NATO in 1997. Dr Kohl on Saturday became the first western leader to meet Mr Yeltsin following his heart operation two months ago.
"We're glad to see you," Dr Kohl told Mr Yeltsin (65). "It's very important that you are back in the Kremlin."
Mr Yell sin fought off a communist threat in July's presidential election and then fell ill. He returned to work two weeks ago after a heart by pass operation on November 5th.
Western leaders now hope he can start sorting out the bitter dispute over NATO which has soured East West relations.
Moscow has opposed western plans to allow former Warsaw Pact member states in eastern Europe to join NATO, seeing it as a threat to its own security and as a humiliating confirmation of its loss of superpower status.
NATO invitations could be extended to Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic as early as July. Unable to veto the expansion, Russian ministers and officials have adopted a confusing mix of tough and conciliatory language.
Mr Yeltsin, who still looked wan and tired when he met Dr Kohl for three hours of talks at the Rus hunting lodge outside Moscow, gave no indication of any major breakthrough.
"We sought a settlement of this issue. We agreed to continue discussion in the future on the theme Russia and NATO," a Kremlin spokesman, Mr Sergei Yastrzhembsky, quoted him as saying.
Dr Kohl sounded more upbeat at a news conference before flying home.
"There are still some differences of opinion," he said. "But we evaluated a coupled of ideas which I will discuss with my NATO colleagues over the next couple of days on the telephone.
"I think that this year we will find a rational solution which will make NATO enlargement possible without creating new dividing lines and which will at the same time respect the security interests of all partners concerned.
"The mistrust from the era of the Cold War must go. I see a good chance and this chance has to be taken up now and in the coming months," he added, saying it would need much negotiation.
Those talks will add to Mr Yeltsin's mounting schedule of travel and meetings in the next few months.
He accepted an invitation to Germany in April and, at Dr Kohl's suggestion, will have talks in The Hague on February 4th with Mr Wim Kok, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, which holds the EU presidency.
Mr Yeltsin plans to welcome President Jacques Chirae of France later this month and the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, at a later date.
Mr Yeltsin will travel to the US in March for talks with President Clinton and again in June for the Group of Seven summit in Denver.
Meanwhile, Russia has withdrawn the last of its defence ministry troops from Chechnya, a ministry spokesman said yesterday, marking a formal end to Moscow's military campaign in the region.