MIDDLE EAST: The Bush administration has launched an ambitious bid to promote democracy in the "greater Middle East" that will adapt a model used to press for freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Senior White House and State Department officials have already begun talks with key European allies about a master plan to be put forward this summer at summits of the Group of Eight nations, NATO allies and the European Union, US officials say. With international backing, the US then hopes to win commitments of action from Middle Eastern and south Asian countries.
"It's a sweeping change in the way we approach the Middle East," said a senior State Department official. "We hope to roll out some of the principles for reform in talks with the Europeans over the next few weeks, with specific ideas of how to support them."
Details are still being crafted. But the initiative, scheduled to be unveiled at the G-8 summit hosted by President Bush at Sea Island, Georgia, in June, would call for Arab and south Asian governments to adopt major political reforms, be held accountable on human rights - particularly women's empowerment - and introduce economic reforms, US and European officials said.
As incentives for the targeted countries to co-operate, Western nations would offer to expand political engagement, increase aid, facilitate membership in the World Trade Organization and foster security arrangements, possibly some equivalent of the Partnership for Peace with former Eastern Bloc countries.
The US approach is loosely modelled on the 1975 Helsinki Accords signed by 35 nations, including the US, the Soviet Union and almost all European countries. It was designed to recognise disputed post-second World War borders and establish a mechanism for settling other disagreements. But human rights and fundamental freedoms became key parts of the treaty, giving the West leverage to promote and protect dissident groups in the Soviet bloc and urge greater freedoms for its residents.
"There is a belief that (Helsinki) contributed to bringing Europe together and played a significant role in tearing down the Soviet Union," said a State Department official. "In the same way, this idea would tear down the attractiveness of (Islamic) extremism." Unlike Helsinki, however, the administration's "Greater Middle East Initiative" seeks to avoid creating committees and structures to strictly monitor progress and issue report cards, US officials say.
It also seeks to avoid appearing to dictate to the Islamic world.
"The idea is not to come out with proposals that say 'This is how the West thinks you guys should live'," said a senior administration official.
"It is instead about saying 'We hear voices in the greater Middle East region who want democracy and reform, and here are the things we can do to support them'."
At each of the three summits in June, the US would like allies to agree on principles of political, economic and security change - many outlined by the Arabs themselves in two UN Development Programme reports - and ways to enact reforms.
The G8, NATO and US-European Union would each focus on the issues most relevant to its goals. The review process would then be built into subsequent annual summits of the three alliances, US officials say.
"The key to all of this is to get the (Muslim) countries in question to feel ownership in this process," said a Danish diplomat.
The Danish and Canadian governments have done serious work on the issue and are coming up with their own draft proposals, say US and European officials.
The administration's general goal is to put meat on the bones of Bush's call for political change throughout the Islamic world, outlined in two speeches last autumn.