IRAN: Imposing sanctions on Tehran would be seen as a litmus test of transatlantic relations, writes Paul Taylor in Brussels
Looming security choices over Iran's nuclear ambitions and Russian power politics with energy supplies pose new challenges to transatlantic relations that are still recovering from a deep crisis over Iraq.
These were the dominant themes of a weekend Brussels Forum of political, business and opinion leaders from Europe and North America convened to thrash out the toughest issues.
The US and EU countries are working together again on trouble spots from Afghanistan to Gaza, but potential new divisions lurk over the use of force against Iran and to stop the killing in the Sudanese province of Darfur.
While EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana insisted US-European co-operation was now "almost perfect", differences of tone and intention were clearest on Iran.
Few European speakers agreed with Republican senator John McCain's statement that: "The one thing worse than military action would be a nuclear-armed Iran." Mr Solana said no one had mentioned military options at a meeting of Nato and EU foreign ministers, including US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, and Europeans did not want to join a "coalition of the willing" against Iran.
US speakers said imposing sanctions on Tehran would be the litmus test of transatlantic relations. Mr McCain warned Russia and China of a congressional backlash if they blocked UN action against Tehran.
While Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said the US should engage Iran in direct talks, other US participants suggested Washington could not talk to a president who denied the Holocaust and called for Israel's destruction.
The Americans, led by Mr McCain, a potential Republican presidential candidate, voiced impatience at European reluctance to intervene militarily to halt what Washington has branded genocide in Darfur.
They did not suggest sending US troops to the conflict, in which at least 180,000 people have died and more than two million have fled their homes, according to UN estimates.
When Mr Solana and Nato secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said they could not act without an agreed "political framework", former assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke called it "buck-passing" and "bureaucratic words while people are dying".
Europeans and North Americans agreed that Russian president Vladimir Putin was trying to use gas for political coercion and vowed to resist.
European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, US assistant secretary of state Daniel Fried and Canadian foreign minister Peter McKay said they would press Mr Putin at a summit in July to open Russia's energy markets in return for reciprocal access to the West.