BRUSSELS, Nov 3 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush will "reach out" to Europe in his second term as both sides seek to bury their differences over Iraq, the US ambassador to the EU said Wednesday.
"It is the intention of the administration of the incoming president to renew the commitment, to reach out to Europe," Rockwell Schnabel told AFP after Bush's victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry was confirmed.
Schnabel said that based on congratulatory telephone calls placed to Bush by European leaders, "my feeling is that when we reach out to Europe, that Europe will reach out back to the United States".
"We'd like to think that on Iraq, the worst is over," he added.
The European Union was deeply split by the defining foreign-policy issue of Bush's first term in office, the war on Iraq.
Britain spearheaded a group of European countries that backed the US military campaign, while EU heavyweights France and German led an anti-war bloc, to the undisguised fury of the Bush administration.
But Schnabel noted that EU countries had come together this week to agree a package of pre-election support for Iraq's interim administration, ahead of a two-day summit of EU leaders starting Thursday.
"Europe is definitely working with us in coming up with support for Iraq, not only for the elections but for the reconstruction of Iraq," he said.
The ambassador said he expected the EU leaders to send a positive signal of their intention to work with the re-elected Bush.
"There's no question that this president is very interested in relations with Europe and recognises also that we have some work to do to get them back to where they used to be some time ago," Schnabel added.
Europe and the United States would work in a "new spirit" also to entrench their cooperation in trade, anti-terrorism measures and security in hotspots such as the Balkans and Afghanistan, the envoy said.
There was even scope for cooperation to combat climate change, he said, despite Bush's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol.
11/03/2004 18:51 GMT - AFP