Bush seeks to heal Iraq rift at EU-US summit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-26 13:38

U.S. President Bush hopes a U.S.-European Union summit on Saturday will help repair the damage to transatlantic ties from the Iraq war, but his visit has sparked protests in Ireland.

US President George W. Bush waves on his arrival at Shannon Airport, Ireland, accompanied by First Lady Laura Bush, June 25, 2004. Bush landed at Shannon airport in western Ireland in Air Force One at the start of an 18-hour visit to attend a summit between the United States and the European Union. [Reuters]

Bush, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and EU leaders gather at the dramatic setting of Dromoland Castle, a 16th century turreted structure in secluded woodland in County Clare.

They are set to agree on strengthening the U.S.-EU economic partnership and a number of other issues.

But the conflict in Iraq and the formal handover of authority to an interim Iraqi government by the U.S.-led coalition on Wednesday was likely to dominate the talks, which will be followed by a joint news conference.

EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said on Friday that violence could break Iraq apart within months and that the EU role in reconstruction and election planning would be limited if security did not improve.

Patten had little to offer Bush but moral support as the U.S. president launched his second European mission this month seeking international help with Iraq.

"All of us are worried that violence could lead to Iraq flying apart in the next few months," Patten told reporters.

Bush's visit has sparked protests in a country where visiting U.S. presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, have traditionally been feted because of their Irish ancestry and the strong historical links between the two nations.

Demonstrators protest outside the entrance to Shannon Airport, Friday June 25, 2004, at the arrivial of U.S. President George Bush's visit to Ireland for a U.S.-European Union Summit. [AP]

Between 5,000 and 10,000 people marched through Dublin on Friday night to voice opposition to Bush and about 600 protested at Shannon, the airport where he landed, though they were kept well away from the presidential entourage.

MORNING PROTESTS

Many of the Dublin marchers vowed to cross Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, in buses early on Saturday and hold more protests near Dromoland Castle.

They were due to assemble just 4 miles from the castle at about 10 a.m. (5 a.m. EDT) and walk toward it. Police have pledged to stop them getting too close.

At issue was not only U.S. policy in Iraq but the role of the Irish government as well. Ahern's government has come in for heavy domestic criticism for allowing thousands of U.S. jets to refuel at Shannon en route to the Middle East.

Bush, in an interview on Thursday with Irish state television RTE, said he could understand why people were angry.

"People don't like war. But what they should be angry about is the fact that there was a brutal dictator there that had destroyed lives and put them in mass graves and had torture rooms," Bush said.

The U.S. president is eager to share the burden in Iraq and is under pressure in an election year to obtain more international support for Baghdad. His trip to Ireland was a prelude to a visit to Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey.

U.S. officials hope to put bitter war debate in the past.

"There is a strong will on both sides to put the disagreements of 2003 in the past, and without prejudice to any government's position about Iraq or other issues in 2003, to move on," a senior U.S. official said.

Ahern said the recent signing of a U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing Iraq's new government had ended the rift.

"Whatever the arguments of last year, those arguments are dead," Ahern told RTE.

He said the summit would concentrate on signing joint statements on what he called "seven major issues."

They are: Iraq, the Middle East, Sudan, counter-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, the fight against HIV/AIDS and the strengthening of the transatlantic economic partnership.

At a NATO summit in Istanbul Monday and Tuesday, senior Bush administration officials believe the allies will agree in principle to help the new Baghdad government train its security forces, after Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi made the request for such assistance.

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