Medvedev wants better relationship with Obama

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hopes for a better relationship with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama than he has with the current U.S. administration, he said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

Speaking in a televised interview with French journalists, Medvedev said he had had a good telephone conversation with Obama and that they had agreed they should meet face-to-face as soon as possible.

"I hope... we'll be able to find a way out of these (difficult) situations, which we haven't been able to do with our current colleagues," he said in a televised interview with French journalists.

"The new president has a big reserve of good-will. He was elected during a very difficult period. I wish him success in dealing with what lies before him," he said.

Last week, as congratulations poured in to Obama from around the world on his election victory, Medvedev gave a stern warning about U.S. plans to base missile defense units in Eastern Europe, saying Russia would react by basing short-range missiles in the western territory of Kaliningrad.

Medvedev and other Kremlin officials have backed off slightly since then, however. In the interview, Medvedev again suggested that if Washington halts its plans, Moscow would do the same.

Medvedev spoke ahead of his trip to France for a key summit with the European Union. After France, he heads to Washington for a summit of world leaders who plan to discuss the global economic crisis.

Medvedev said a new "Bretton Woods" system of global financial regulation was needed and he said it should consider all countries' interests, not just those of the "most powerful or the biggest."

Russia has repeatedly called for a sweeping overhaul of financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Bretton Woods was the 1944 conference in the U.S. state of New Hampshire that established international monetary protocols governing trade, banking and other financial relations among nations.