On Wednesday, the US President George W. Bush made a stopover in the German city of Mainz, but surprisingly faced hundreds of protestors on the streets, signaling of still hostile attitude towards the US’s invasion to Iraq. Today he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bratislava.

Mr. Bush remained optimistic. He said his seven-hour stopover was rather fruitful as he managed to repair relations with Germany, cracked by the German refusal to join the US troops in Iraq.

Mr. Bush did not contact the rally.

The German officials say that the ice in German-American relations is melting, although not all differences have been solved. "Both sides obviously want to symbolize, by language, by rhetoric and by body language that German-American relations are good. When politicians do that, it’s more than symbolic, it’s also substance, because it gives a signal to public opinion that this is the way they want it to be in the future," said Karsten Voigt, a senior German Foreign Ministry official.

Still, both parties have admitted that the German population is rather skeptical over Bush’s fence-mending arrival.

In Slovakia Mr. Bush today meets Russian President Vladimir Putin. In talks with Putin, Bush is expected to make an attempt to turn Russia to the path of democracy and loyalty towards neighboring post-Soviet countries, such as Ukraine and Georgia. The Russian leader has already arrived in Bratislava to start the first summit with the US President since Bush went for his second term.