Terence Hunt, Associated Press  --  Arab News

NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS, Ireland, 27 June 2004 — The United States and the European Union offered support for Iraq’s urgent request for NATO military help yesterday. “NATO has the capability and I believe the responsibility to help the Iraqi people defeat the terrorist threat that’s facing their country,” US President George W. Bush said.

“I think the bitter differences of the war are over,” Bush said at the close of a US-European Union summit. “There is a common interest and a common goal to help the Iraqi people.”

The United States and the European Union agreed in a joint statement to back Iraq’s request for NATO military help and support the training of Iraqi security forces, and to reduce Iraq’s international debt, estimated to be $120 billion. The EU did not express support for more European troops in Iraq, as Bush had sought, but its expression of support for NATO training assistance was seen as an effort to bridge divisions between Western nations over the Iraq situation.

The joint statement also made a veiled criticism of abuse of prisoners by American soldiers. “We stress the need for full respect of the Geneva Conventions,” the statement said, referring to international accords setting out guidelines for the humane treatment of prisoners. The single sentence was an unstated but obvious reference to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

EU leaders raised the topic with Bush in their private meetings yesterday, and also aired it publicly during a joint news conference. “These things unfortunately happened, and of course we wish they didn’t. But they do,” Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said. “What’s important is how they’re dealt with.”

Bush said, “It did harm. It did harm.” But he said the American investigations will be done openly, as opposed to the secrecy of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities. “I don’t remember any international investigation of what took place in Iraq” under Saddam, Bush said.

Bush also described the threat posed by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who has been linked to Al-Qaeda and is thought to be responsible for hundreds of deaths in Iraq. “He is a problem because he is willing to kill innocent people,” the president said.

The US-EU joint statements were partly a victory for Bush, attending the first of two summits over five days. They sent him on to the NATO summit beginning today in Turkey with progress in hand: Nineteen of NATO’s 26 members are in the EU, so the union’s pledge of support could help sway NATO members at their gathering. Bush initially had sought more European troops for Iraq, but France and Germany rejected the idea. So the Bush administration is signaling yesterday’s statements of support as a victory.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi sent a letter to NATO this week pleading for “urgent help” from the alliance to build up Iraqi forces “to defeat the terrorist threat and reduce reliance on foreign forces.”

The news conference was held outside a 16th century castle that was heavily guarded against security threats and from the thousands of demonstrators protesting Bush’s policies in Iraq.

Asked about his unpopularity in Europe, Bush said: “I must confess that the first polls I worry about are those that are going to take place in early November this year.”

He brushed off criticism by Europeans. “As far as my own personal standing goes, my job is to do my job. I’m going to do it the way I think is necessary. I’m going to set a vision. I will lead, and we’ll just let the chips fall where they may.”

About 5,000 protesters traveled by bus yesterday from all over Ireland and marched to barbed wire barricades set up a few miles from the castle. The demonstration was peaceful and there were no arrests.