Bush's goodwill tour of Europe faces uphill battle

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - In his first trip to Europe since September 11, United States President George W. Bush is struggling to win over allies incensed by his relentless defence of national interests.

Donning the coat of international statesman, Bush is appealing to allies to pursue the war against terrorism and warning them that Iraq is a far greater threat to their countries than any perceived US unilateralism.

But it is a difficult pitch. Apart from Russia, which - ironically, given its status as a historical foe - is greeting him with open arms, Bush has run into street protests in Berlin and faces likely demonstrations in France on Monday and Tuesday and again in Rome on Wednesday at a Nato-Russian summit.

"Our alliance must remain tough in the war against global terror," Bush said at the start of his trip. "Even though we've had some initial successes, there's still danger for countries which embrace freedom ... "

In Berlin, where citizens greeted US Presidents from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton with deep gratitude for America's defence of their city during the confrontation with the Soviet Union, 10,000 police were deployed to shield him from protesters during his 19-hour stay, in one of the biggest security operations since World War II.

"Never has a President of the US been so foreign to us, and never have German citizens been so sceptical about the policies of their most powerful ally," commented the Berliner Zeitung.

Demonstrators called themselves "the Axis of Peace", mocking Bush's reference to the "Axis of Evil". In France, thousands of leftwingers and environmentalists are expected to rally in Paris and in Normandy, where Bush is scheduled to visit the D-Day beaches.

But there can hardly be any surprise at this hostility, for transatlantic relations have been on the slide for months.

Last September, hundreds of thousands of Europeans marched in grief and solidarity at the loss of life in New York and Washington, and their countries swiftly pledged their support to the US in its war against the perpetrators.

But the mountain of political capital that Bush enjoyed has now melted away, despite the buttressing efforts of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Critics of the White House insist that they are not anti-American, nor are they any less resolved to combat terrorism. They say they are simply indignant at what they see as a lengthening list of blunders by a man with pitiful knowledge of the world beyond America's borders and who is grimly determined, in a US election year, to place national interests first.

Bush stoked enormous ill will in Europe when, in March last year, he walked away from the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Since the start of the year, this suspicion of US unilateralism strengthened after Bush made bellicose noises against Iraq that found no support in Europe, and rejected the new International Criminal Court.

On the diplomatic front, the White House is widely scorned by European commentators for declaring Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "a man of peace" even as his bloody operation in the West Bank was continuing to unfold.

Bush's biggest success - a treaty with Moscow to slash Cold War nuclear stockpiles - is seen by many as a smart move by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who lacked the money to maintain the Russian arsenal, and in any case as a flimsy agreement easily overturned by either side.

Yet the most combustible issue is trade. An avowed defender of unfettered commerce, Bush has slapped tariffs on steel from Europe and elsewhere in order to prop up the steel industry in the US Rust Belt, and readied billions of dollars in subsidies for American farmers.

These moves could ignite a vicious economic war: the European Union is retaliating against the steel taxes by preparing US$2.2 billion ($4.6 billion) worth of import tariffs on citrus fruit, linen and other products from US states where there are elections this year, with the idea of hitting Bush where it hurts most.

"In Bush, we are dealing with an elephant, a wounded and threatened elephant, an elephant in an election campaign," said European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. "He is absolutely bent on winning the congressional elections."

The tension between Europe and America would not exist if it were not fed by ancient prejudices on both sides.

Many in the US see the Europeans as divided and soft on security matters and will resent TV pictures of demonstrators attacking their President at a time of war.

Many Europeans are comforted in their secret belief that Americans are "arrogant, bellicose and deaf to all criticism", says French analyst Patrick Jarreau.