Russian children get US First Lady's tips

The two first ladies joined forces to back the event

Russian schoolchildren have been meeting US First Lady Laura Bush - who told them to watch less television and read more books.

She also told the children: "I read all five of the Harry Potter books."

Mrs Bush was at a book festival hosted by her Russian opposite number, Ludmila Putina.

Book festivals celebrated reading and writers, Mrs Bush said, but that was not their only purpose.

Turn off television when you get home and read Laura Bush

"This festival is also a celebration of freedom - the freedom to write what we want to write and to read the books we want to read," she said.

Mrs Bush, a former librarian and teacher, is an enthusiastic supporter of children's books.

"Turn off television when you get home and read," she told the children.

Mrs Bush is on a charm offensive in Europe. She has already received a positive reaction in Paris, which she visited earlier this week.

US children's writers went to Moscow event - among them RL Stine, author of the Goosebumps series, thriller writer Peter Lerangis and Marc Brown, who writes Arthur the Aardvark.

On Wednesday evening, Mrs Putina was due to take her US guest to the Bolshoi Ballet for a private performance of Don Quixote.