Moscow, Sept 12, SPA -- Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov saidSunday that Moscow and Washington speak a common languageon fighting terror and defended Russia's right to dealpre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases abroad in the wakeof the school hostage seizure. Ivanov said he had spoken twice with U.S. DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld last week, adding that the U.S.administration was more receptive to Moscow's argumentsthan some European officials. "I attribute it to the fact that the Americans and theU.S. military have a better understanding of theseriousness of this threat since the United States and usboth have been targeted in powerful terror attacks,"Ivanov said in an interview on the NTV television channel."In that sense, it has been easier for us to find a basisfor mutual understanding with the United States than withsome of the European nations." Ivanov's statement came after U.S. Secretary of StateColin Powell and Rumsfeld offered support to the Kremlin,which has fumed at what it perceives as Western "doublestandards" in dealing with Chechen rebels. After the school hostage crisis ended Sept. 3 in a chaosof gunfire and explosions that killed at least 330hostages, President Vladimir Putin blamed it oninternational terrorism. Putin lashed out angrily at thosein the West who continued to advise Russia to conduct peacetalks with rebels in Chechnya, advising them to negotiatewith Osama bin Laden.--more1431 Local Time 1131 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/200711