Bush arrives in Europe for major visit

Bush Visit: President Bush has arrived in Brussels at the start of a four-day visit to Europe aimed at renewing the transatlantic…

Bush Visit: President Bush has arrived in Brussels at the start of a four-day visit to Europe aimed at renewing the transatlantic relationship after the bitter divisions caused by the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Mr Bush will use a major policy speech in a Brussels concert hall today to address European misgivings about his administration, emphasising his commitment to working with European allies on such key issues as climate change and the Middle East peace process.

The EU will announce that it is reopening its representative office in Baghdad and is expected to promise to work with the new Iraqi government. The EU office in Baghdad will be operated by two British officials who are already in the city, but its reopening is seen as an important gesture towards Iraq after this month's elections.

A massive security operation has shut down entire districts of the Belgian capital, with barbed-wire barriers and police checkpoints at the end of almost every street in the European quarter and near the US embassy. Most officials at the European Commission's headquarters, the Berlaymont, have been told to stay at home tomorrow, so the vast building will be almost deserted when Mr Bush visits it tomorrow evening.

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Mr Bush starts his official engagements this morning with a courtesy call on King Albert II and Queen Paola of the Belgians and meetings with the Belgian prime minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, and the NATO secretary general, Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Mr de Hoop Scheffer said yesterday that Mr Bush's visit will reaffirm the importance NATO as a transatlantic institution. "I believe that at the summit in the coming week, American, Canadian and European NATO allies will rediscover and realise that NATO is, and must remain, a unique forum after coming through many differences of opinion in its history," he said.

Germany's chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, called last week for a thorough review of Europe's relationship with the US and suggested that NATO was no longer the primary forum for transatlantic dialogue. Mr de Hoop Scheffer warned against seeking to create an EU foreign policy in competition with NATO.

"Europe must realise that deeper European integration ... which is directed against the United States ... is a dead end because such a discussion would result in a completely divided Europe," he said.

Mr Bush will host a dinner for President Jacques Chirac this evening and will have breakfast with Mr Tony Blair tomorrow before meeting Ukraine's president, Mr Viktor Yuschenko.

Mr Bush will meet all 26 NATO leaders at the alliance's Brussels headquarters tomorrow and will meet EU leaders as well as visiting the European Commission. During the 90-minute meeting with EU leaders, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will lead a discussion on Russia.

On Wednesday, Mr Bush travels to Mainz for talks with Mr Schröder and a visit to US troops stationed in Wiesbaden. His visit to Europe will end on Thursday with a meeting with the Russian president, Mr Vladimir Putin.