WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House is lowering expectations for President Bush’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that begins Sunday at the Bush family’s oceanfront estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.

“I would caution against expecting grand new announcements,” White House press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday of the meeting at the home of Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. “This is, in fact, an opportunity for two leaders to talk honestly and candidly with one another.”

The younger Bush and Putin are expected to talk about the Middle East, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and missile defense.

But Snow said: “If you’re expecting some sort of grand initiative, a bold announcement – no.”

Putin, who has vehemently opposed U.S. plans for missile defense in Central Europe, surprised Bush at a recent meeting in Germany of top industrialized countries, by proposing the shared use of a Russia-rented early warning radar in Azerbaijan.

Snow was careful not to dismiss Putin’s suggestion, although Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the United States will not embrace the facility in Azerbaijan as a substitute for radar and interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic.

“The president was encouraged that President Putin thought it was important to talk about missile defense, recognizing that if a hostile power, a rogue nation gets the capability of putting nuclear weapons on a missile, everybody in Europe and Asia is going to be in jeopardy,” Snow said.