US: The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, flew into central Europe this week to give Washington's allies a pep-talk over Iraq, only to find the region's avowedly steadfast leaders increasingly out of step with a public that wants to bring its troops home. Danier McLaughlin reports.
After seeing five nations, including Spain and the Philippines, recall their soldiers in recent weeks, the US now fears that a mounting death toll and threats of terrorist attack could force several European nations to withdraw their men from a beleaguered occupation force.
"Democracy is hard, democracy is dangerous," a combative Mr Powell told Hungarian television.
"This is the time for us to be steadfast, not get weak in the knees and say, 'Oh, gosh, this may be too hard, let's leave these poor people alone so the tyrants can return.' We're not going to do that." Perhaps mindful of the fate of two Bulgarian truck drivers who were executed this month, Mr Powell continued: "We must not allow insurgents, those who will use bombs and kidnapping and beheading, to triumph."
Pictures of the headless body of one of the Bulgarians were posted on the Internet this week, and prompted renewed calls in the Balkan nation for the government to bring home its contingent of 480 troops.
The killings, along with threats from al-Qaeda-linked groups to launch attacks in Bulgaria, have prompted renewed opposition calls for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, a move that polls suggest is supported by a large majority of Bulgarians.
"We demand a strategy for the gradual reduction of the Bulgarian military presence in Iraq . . . and an ending of the mission of the Bulgarian battalion not later than the end of January," Socialist Party leader Mr Sergei Stanishev said, laying down a marker in what will be a key issue in general elections next June.
Ukraine said this week that it had started negotiations to reduce and eventually withdraw its 1,650 troops from Iraq, where seven Ukrainians have died and 20 have been injured.
President Leonid Kuchma dispatched his men to the Gulf to help mend relations with Washington that were badly dented by accusations that he had sent banned military hardware to Baghdad.
But now the veteran leader faces a tough election fight in October, and has been alarmed by surveys that consistently show that around 70 per cent of the electorate wants Ukrainian troops to come home.
Neighbouring Poland commands a joint force of some 6,200 men in south-central Iraq, including 2,400 of its own.
But staunch public support from Warsaw's leaders for the US action is not reflected on the streets of Poland.
In urging Hungary not to call home its 350 troops, Mr Powell evoked the bitter history of a region that escaped the grip of Moscow's hegemony only a decade ago.