President Bush had a smile and firm handshake for this year's Group of Eight nations summit host, French President Jacques Chirac. The French leader, with whom Bush's relations have been especially bitter since Chirac actively led the opposition to the Iraq war, greeted Bush on Sunday and ushered him toward the waiting group of other leaders standing on the hotel's patio.

French officials said Chirac would use a one-on-one meeting with Bush on Monday to discuss the future of Iraq but not rehash past differences.

"I can't imagine that they would meet again without discussing the question of Iraq," Chirac spokeswoman Catherine Colonna told reporters. "But if they discuss it, it won't be to go back over the past, that would not be useful, but to look toward the future."

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters blocked highways and bridges, set fire to barricades and drew volleys of tear gas and rubber pellets Sunday from anti-riot police near the Group of Eight summit in the French town of Evian.

The most violent protests early Sunday were in the Swiss city Lausanne, across Lake Geneva from the G-8 summit site. Demonstrators wearing masks hurled rocks at police and a posh hotel and looted a gas station and a supermarket.

One protester was seriously hurt when he fell from a highway overpass. Lausanne police chief Eric Lehmann said the fall was an accident but demonstrators blamed authorities.

Bush challenged other nations to follow America's lead and pledge dramatic increases in support for the battle against AIDS. Before leaving on his European trip, Bush signed into law a US program that will provide $15 billion to fight the disease over the next five years and said he hoped the action would prod other wealthy nations into similar commitments.

The first day of this year's summit was devoted to a discussion of the problems facing the developing world. The leaders of the wealthy countries were joined by their counterparts from major developing nations such as China and India.

The leaders arrived at the talks at a posh hotel on the shores of picturesque Lake Geneva by boat and helicopter, in a successful effort to thwart anti-globalization protesters' hopes of barring their passage to the meeting site.

"The most important thing, particularly after all the differences there have been over Iraq, is that the international community comes together and gives a very strong statement," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's leading supporter in the war effort.

"It will be the quality of intent that is as important as anything else," Blair said. The British prime minister said he hoped the summit would take a clear position on the need to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Differences over Iraq caused an unprecedented breach between the United States and longtime partners such as France and Germany. With prompting from Washington, some Americans have refused to buy French products.

The repair work started Saturday when the leaders gathered in St. Petersburg, Russia, to help Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrate the 300th anniversary of his hometown.

At a news conference in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Bush and Putin urged North Korea and Iran to halt development of nuclear weapons. Both leaders said relations between their countries were sound despite the Iraq debate, in which Putin had sided with France, Germany and Canada against the Bush administration.

"We will show the world that friends can disagree, move beyond disagreement and work in a very constructive and important way to maintain the peace," Bush said, with Putin at his side.

"The fundamentals between the United States and Russia turned out to be stronger than the forces and events that tested it," Putin said, Bush nodding in agreement.

Chirac met one-on-one early Sunday morning with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who was making his first foreign trip since he took office in March and was meeting later in the day with Bush. It was also the first time China has attended the annual summit of the world's seven richest industrial countries and Russia.

Chirac also invited the leaders of India, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia and several African countries. The move was intended in part to answer the criticism of anti-globalization protesters that the G-8 was a rich country's club that was failing to do enough to deal with the needs of poorer countries.

In addition to Chirac, Bush has been cool to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who won re-election with what the White House viewed as an anti-American as well as anti-war campaign.

Bush took the initiative to offer his hand to Schroeder in a brief greeting at Sunday night's dinner in St. Petersburg.