WORLD : Gorbachev Congratulates Bush, Hopes for Stable U.S. Relations

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev congratulated President Bush on his inauguration today and expressed hope that superpower relations will be stable during his term in office, Tass press agency said.

In his message to the new President, Gorbachev said Bush is coming to power in an atmosphere of improved Soviet-American ties. “Further joint efforts by the Soviet Union and the United States will make it possible substantially to bring closer the solution of the most painful problems of the present time, above all those connected with the need to eliminate the threat of war,” Gorbachev said.