World leaders have gathered in St Petersburg determined the party spirit around the 300th anniversary of Russia's old tsarist capital should help clear the air after the Iraq war.
Key players in the bitter debate over the US-led invasion of Iraq, including leaders of France, Germany and Britain, are arriving for three days of sumptuous celebrations to mark the tercentenary of President Vladimir's Putin's home town.
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.
Both Bush and his closest ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair, 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 other countries, like Russia, that had opposed the war, though he said frustration persisted 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.
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.
"Now is a crucial time. It is a moment either for reconciliation or for drifting apart," he said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac will join Blair and other leaders in a champagne toast with Putin at the foot of the massive "Bronze Horseman" statue of Tsar Peter the Great, the city's founder.
Thousands of heavily-armed police moved into high gear to head off terrorist threats 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.
Police boarded boats moored along the Neva river before Putin met 11 fellow leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States on board a luxury cruise liner hired from the Bahamas.
The city's international airport was shut for two days and the Baltic city's oil port shut down until Monday. And air force planes took to the skies to disperse threatening clouds.
Large sections of the city have been closed off. With the encouragement of the authorities, many of its 4.5 million people have fled to country dachas, making it easier to police.
Reporters down to cover events that will bring them into proximity with leaders were screened for exposure to SARS.
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.
Among issues on the agenda is Iran, part of Bush's "axis of evil" with prewar Iraq, where Russia is building a nuclear power plant that Washington fears could have military uses. A Russian minister said on Friday that US firms should join the project.
Also on the sidelines, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will hold his first summit with new Chinese President Hu Jintao, a chance for the neighbours to patch up soured ties.