US President George W. Bush kicked off a summit of major industrialized countries on Tuesday confident that Iraq would be a unifying issue and not the source of division that it has been in the past.
Having a UN Security Council resolution on the future of Iraq all but in hand as the three-day Group of Eight summit begins in Georgia allows Bush to press his case that Iraq can attain political stability despite the surge in violence there in recent months.
Approval of the resolution, expected later today, would provide a fitting backdrop, in the US view, for a visit to the summit on Wednesday by Iraq's new president Mr Ghazi al-Yawar.
Washington, assailed by allies who believe it stirred more violence in the region with the war, believes Iraq could be a catalyst for change in the region and is promoting plans for broader political and economic reform in the Middle East at the Sea Island summit.
The G8 groups the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada.
The US-British resolution will endorse Iraq's interim government and establish a multinational force to help guide Iraq to elections in January.
It has been held up by objections over exactly how much control the Iraqis will have over foreign troops but last-minute changes on military policy met demands by France and Germany.
Iraq and Middle East issues are likely to top the agenda, but the leaders have a list of other topics to discuss during their three days behind moat-like security on Sea Island.
Iraq's debt, where Washington would like to see large-scale forgiveness as a tool toward regaining stability, the effect of oil prices on the global economy were also likely to be discussed.
A swathe of development issues were also on the agenda, including private-sector efforts to fight poverty, the development of a vaccine for HIV/AIDS and a proposal to fight famine in the Horn of Africa.