The result

As the ship floated on grey seas, history was being made. What Mr Bush had originally envisioned as a 'get acquainted' informal meeting aboard US and Soviet warships instead became what both sides described as a businesslike working session.

At the Reykjavik summit in 1986, Mr Gorbachev opened the encounter with a list of sweeping arms proposals that put Mr Reagan off balance for the rest of their time together.

This time, it was Mr Bush who produced the 112 typed pages of specifics. Details emerged at an unplanned joint news conference at the end of the summit in the Soviet liner's disco.

The success was clear. The two men said they had set the stage for big reductions in troops and weapons in Europe.

In eight hours of talks, Mr Bush and Mr Gorbachev said they had decided to accelerate the negotiations on reducing strategic nuclear weapons so that a treaty could be signed within six months.

Most importantly, Mr Gorbachev assured Mr Bush the Soviet Union would never start a "hot war" against the US. He also responded positively to Mr Bush's new bid to advance a global treaty to ban chemical weapons.

The Soviet leader said: "The world is leaving one epoch and entering another. We are at the beginning of a long road to a lasting, peaceful era. The threat of force, mistrust, psychological and ideological struggle should all be things of the past."

For his part, Mr Bush said: "We can realise a lasting peace and transform the East-West relationship to one of enduring co-operation. That is the future that Chairman Gorbachev and I began right here in Malta."

They also said that the reform movements in Eastern Europe would be given the leeway to continue their historic drive toward pluralism and free-market economies.

After a year of uncertain relations, Mr Bush had offered a series of proposals to lift trade restrictions on Moscow and bring Soviets closer to involvement in Western trade and investment.

Mr Gorbachev raised the prospect of even deeper cuts in conventional forces than those being negotiated, though the two leaders had disagreements about the conflict in Central America.

No agreements were signed at the summit, but to many it marked the end of the Cold War.