President George W. Bush and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the end of their meeting Monday that they "stand together" on the Iranian nuclear question, but did not give any details on what are the practical implications of their shared position.

The United States, Russia and the other Security Council members are busy formulating a stronger package of sanctions against the Iranian regime. However, the Security Council is unlikely to impose further sanctions on Tehran before Iran responds to an offer by the international community to resume negotiations if Iran immediately freezes its uranium enrichment program.

Both the Bush administration and the American intelligence services believe that this round of Security Council discussions on sanctions against Iran will determine whether the economic sanctions strategy are likely to block Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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The U.S. administration would like to tighten the noose around Iran's banking system, increase the number of Iranian officials whose international travel is restricted, and intensify an arms boycott against the regime.

The U.S. intensified its rhetoric against Iran on Monday, accusing Tehran of initiating the recent deadly attacks against American forces in Iraq.

The summit, hosted at the Bush family's retreat at Kennebunkport, Maine, was an opportunity for the two leaders to seek common ground on issues that have raised the level of tension between the West and Russia to their highest point since the end of the Cold War, 17 years ago.

Bush complimented his guest at the news conference after their meeting, saying that "when Russia and the United States speak along the same lines it tends to have an effect, and therefore I appreciate the Russians' attitude in the United Nations. We're close on recognizing that we got to work together to send a common message."

Putin predicted that "we will continue to be successful" as they work through the United Nations Security Council.

Putin suggested there would be further substantial exchanges on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, but it was unclear whether the leaders had agreed on methods or merely wanted to gloss over for public consumption any differences on strategy.

Bush and Putin want to stymie Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions, but have not seen eye-to-eye on how to hard they should pressure Tehran or even whether Iranian missiles currently pose a threat.

The two leaders had publicly disagreed on a number of major international and security related issues, including democracy in Russia, missile defense, NATO expansion closer to Russia, and the question of Kosovo's independence.

Putin came to the meeting with a number of alternatives to the planned deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Bush called the Russian leader's latest missile defense ideas "very sincere" and "very innovative."

Trying to portray a solid relationship, Steven Hadley, National Security Adviser to President Bush, told reporters that the two nations have reached a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement to be signed tomorrow by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"The agreement assures countries that want peaceful nuclear power programs that they will have support of the international community as long as they do not contribute to nuclear weapons proliferation," Hadley said.