The United States says its decision to bar Iraq war opponents like France, Germany and Russia from $18.6 billion in US reconstruction projects is appropriate and an inducement for countries to commit troops and provide other support.
The decision renewed bitter trans-Atlantic tensions over the Iraq war just as the United States was beginning a separate effort to gain an international consensus on relieving Iraq's $125 billion in foreign debt.
It suggested US President George W. Bush was in no mood to forgive key allies who opposed the war and thwarted his effort to gain United Nations backing to invade Iraq, but would like to cash in on the war's aftermath.
Germany, Russia and France - which had opposed Bush's decision to bypass the United Nations and launch war on Iraq - reacted angrily. The leaders of all three countries raised the issue when Mr Bush called them on Wednesday to ask that they receive former Secretary of State James Baker, his special envoy, to renegotiate Iraq's debt, US National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Mr Bush told the leaders he intended to "keep the lines of communication open" on the contracts.
The European Union's governing commission said it would investigate whether the decision violated world trade rules. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested it was a divisive move.
Asked what a country would need to do in order to become a member of the coalition and eligible for the contracts, a Pentagon spokesman said, "Countries that want to stand up publicly and say I'm in this coalition, we welcome. And if they did that, they would presumably be on this list."
The decision was announced on Tuesday by deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a noted administration hawk who said it was necessary to limit competition for the prime Iraq contracts "for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States."
. But US Trade Representative Mr Richard Mills said that because the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq is not subject to international procurement obligations, there was no need to invoke the "essential security" exception.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States did not regard excluded countries, which include several NATO allies, "to be any kind of risk to American security."