With the fallout over Iraq still weighing on US-French ties, Presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac said all the right things Monday as they met for their first one-on-one talks since the war. The two leaders appeared relaxed as they chatted to reporters ahead of their private talks on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit, stressing their ability to work together but acknowledging that differences remained. "We must be frank, we went through a difficult period," Bush said, referring to the row over Iraq that badly damaged transatlantic ties, with Washington deeply resenting Paris for its refusal to back the invasion of Iraq. "There is no question where Jacques Chirac stood and I made it clear where I stood. That's why I can say we've got good relations, because we are able to be very honest with each other," the US leader noted. "But when the time came to focus on a free Iraq, a healthy Iraq, a prosperous Iraq, we're in agreement," Bush added, referring to Chirac, who was the most outspoken critic of the war to topple Saddam Hussein. The two men, who had several brief exchanges on Sunday at the start of the G8 summit in Evian, had not met since last November at a NATO summit in Prague, and had only spoken twice by telephone since the US-French crisis erupted. The acrimonious dispute sparked a torrent of vitriolic anti-French comments from US lawmakers and a wave of France-bashing in the United States. The US president said critics in both countries were wondering whether the two could "actually sit down and have a comfortable conversation. And the answer is absolutely." Bush added that the two had already discussed their "common desires to grow our economies", as G8 leaders were tackling the issue of how to kickstart world growth. But neither has backed down from their positions on the Iraq war, with Chirac telling the Financial Times last week: "A war which lacks legitimacy does not acquire legitimacy just because it has been won." The two managed to find common ground on UN Security Resolution 1483, adopted last month, which lifted sanctions on Iraq imposed in 1990 and set up a framework for the reconstruction of the battered country. "We have a solid basis that is called resolution 1483," Chirac said when asked if France and the United States could work together on the issue. Bush is making an early exit from Evian on Monday following the bilateral meeting, travelling to the Middle East for two high-profile summits on the peace process that threatened to upstage the G8 gathering. He expressed optimism that he could breathe life into the troubled process, saying: "I think we'll make some progress, I know we'll make some progress." For his part, Chirac offered Bush his "very sincere wishes for success" for Tuesday's US-Arab summit in Egypt and Wednesday's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian premier Mahmud Abbas in Jordan. G8 host Chirac is determined to put Africa and the plight of developing nations at the center of the summit, forwarding his vision of a multipolar world by inviting leaders from a dozen emerging states to join the G8 talks. **PHOTO CAPTION*** French President Jacques Chirac, right, places his hand on the shoulder of U.S. President George W. Bush during a bi-lateral meeting at the Hotel Royal in Evian, France, Monday June 2, 2003. (AP Photo/Jacky Naegelen, Pool)