U.S. President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev has met in Lima on the sidelines of the ongoing APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) economic leaders' meeting, Peru's Andina news agency reported Sunday.

Bush and Medvedev agreed during their meeting Saturday to continue cooperation on a number of issues including piracy off the Somali coast and international security. They also discussed their positions on Iran and Georgia, the news agency said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two sides also discussed the global economic crisis and that Moscow hopes that practical cooperation would continue after U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office early next year.

Relations between the United States and Russia have cooled in recent years over such issues such NATO's eastward expansion and the planned deployment of part the U.S. missile defense system in eastern Europe.

Both Bush and Medvedev were in Lima for the 16th APEC economic leaders' meeting on Saturday and Sunday. This would be Bush's final major international summit before he leaves office in January 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2008)