US: US President George Bush said yesterday he wanted to see a "strong European Union" that would work with the US to achieve global aims and spread freedom and democracy. "My message to these leaders and these friends is that we want a Europe strong, so that we can work together to achieve important objectives and important goals," Mr Bush said after meeting EU leaders at a one-day summit in the White House.
Despite the EU crises over the constitution and the EU budget, the US side continued its recent policy of improving relations with its transatlantic partner. Progress was made on trade, and the US agreed to postpone its requirement for Europeans to carry biometric passports for at least another year, officials said.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker who holds the EU presidency told reporters that "the EU is not at its knees", and "continues to play the role it has on the international scheme." Reflecting some tough talking with Mr Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on world poverty, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission said, "Every day 25,000 people die because they don't have enough to eat or don't have clean water to drink. This is the shame of our generation and we cannot accept it."
A joint press conference after the talks was dominated however by questions over Guantanamo Bay and the war in Iraq. Asked by an Austrian reporter when people kept in CIA prisons would be given a trial, Mr Bush said that those who espouse freedom and human rights must live up to those words and he believed the US did in Guantanamo. "You are welcome to go down there yourself," he said. His remarks coincided with a Time magazine report on interrogation methods at the US detention camp that lawyers claimed eroded personal dignity. Several Senators and former President Bill Clinton said at the weekend Guantanamo should be closed down or cleaned up. Mr Bush said detainees had been "picked up off the battle field, they weren't wearing uniform, they weren't state sponsored, they were there to kill." The fundamental point facing the US government was "what do you do with these people." A federal court would decide whether they should have military or civilian trials, he stated. "Make no mistake however many of those folks being detained are dangerous people," who "will kill at a moment's notice." The information they could get in one case of a 9/11 mastermind "might not only protect us but protect citizens in Europe."
On the Iraq war Mr Bush said, "I think of Iraq every single day, every single day. I understand how dangerous it is there, and the reason it's dangerous is because there are cold-blooded killers that will try to kill Americans and kill innocent Iraqis in order to drive us out of Iraq." He grieved for every death "but I want those families to know we're not going to allow their mission to be in vain and we will complete the mission and the world will be better off for it." He noted that the EU and the US would be hosting a meeting at foreign minister level on Iraq in Brussels tomorrow to mobilise support for the new Iraqi transitional government. Mr Juncker, whom Mr Bush jokingly called a "piece of work" and "a lot of fun to be around" said that "although some of us had differences and divergencies when it came to Iraq, the fact that we are co-organising and co-sharing this very important Iraq conference is shows that when it comes to substance, democracy, freedom and liberty both the US and the European Union are cooperating closely together and walking in the same direction."