LONDON, Jan 20 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush embarked on his second term in office Thursday with world leaders expressing hope that future relations with Washington will be marked by more openness and greater consensus on the international level.
"It is possible to construct an international agenda that is more consensual, more multilateral than what has gone before," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in an interview published Thursday in the daily The Guardian.
"Evolution comes with experience," he said.
Bush took the oath in the US capital, in the 55th US presidential swearing-in and the first since the September 11 attacks three years ago transformed the world and shaped the US presidency around issues of terrorism and the Iraq war.
In Moscow, the buzz was that the two sides must establish "new rules of the game" if they are to avert a second Cold War over spheres of global influence.
Scuffles over influence in ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia as well as the anticipated confirmation as the new US secretary of state of Condoleezza Rice -- a Kremlinologist feared in Russia as a hawk -- have set nerves jangling in Moscow over Bush's second term.
Dozens of Russian and US analysts put their heads together for a somewhat urgent talk shop Thursday to decide what to advise their respective governments.
They could agree on just a few things: The two sides may be partners in some fields but are not yet allies; and new open rules of cooperation in former Soviet republics must be drawn up if they are to avert a long-term diplomatic war.
Bush will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time in his second term in the Slovakian capital Bratislava on February 24.
"It is important to define new rules of the game, especially in the former Soviet republics," said Vyacheslav Nikonov, president of the Kremlin-linked Fond Politika foundation.
"We dominate here whether people like it or not but the United States will not step away from the view that post-Soviet countries deserve their independence, perhaps one guaranteed by the United States," Nikonov said.
France, whose relations with Washington soured after it refused to join the US-led coalition to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said it wants "stronger cooperation" based on mutual respect with the new US administration.
"A new administration around President Bush is being put in place. We hope for stronger cooperation," Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told a parliamentary debate on transatlantic relations.
"We hope that President Bush's trip in February (to Europe) will be a success so we can advance the transatlantic cooperation that brings needed balance to the world," he said.
While France and the United States have had "a number of disagreements ... we want to overcome them as friends and we hope that dialogue will be deepened."
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told CNN television in an interview to mark Bush's inauguration: "It is not just France that must make concessions. A new relationship means that we respect each other. We are allies,"
"The French want to move on, and so do the Americans. To do that our discussions must be open, direct and clear. Each must take a step to the other," he said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose government has also had testy relations with Washington, said he hoped Bush's second term would lead to more dialogue.
"I can understand that President Bush has been upset by the decisions taken by my government," Zapatero said late Wednesday.
"I withdrew Spanish troops (from Iraq) because that was the wish of Spaniards and because the decision went along 100 percent with my own beliefs."
"Lately I have picked up some positive signals, especially coming from the new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who spoke of a new era of dialogue, rather than monologue," Zapatero said.
Poland, a close US ally in the Iraq conflict, said it was confident it would remain "a strategic partner of the United States".
"We hope we will continue to discuss joint projects in NATO and European-US relations as well as central and eastern European questions," President Aleksander Kwasniewski said. "We want to make a contribution to the complex Middle East questions."
Kwasniewski is to meet with Bush in Washington on February 9, making him the first foreign leader scheduled so far to see the US president since his inauguration.
Poland wants to become an "important middleman in US-European relations," he added.
According to a poll published Wednesday, 58 percent of people questioned in a BBC World Service global opinion poll believe Bush has made the world more dangerous since becoming president.
Almost half of the nearly 21,000 people in 21 countries who responded to the poll also made no distinction between the Bush administration and America itself. They saw US influence in the world as largely negative and viewed Americans negatively as well.
Britain ranked among countries with the most negative perception of Bush.
Meanwhile in South Korea, some 50 anti-war activists held a rally denouncing Bush as a "terrorist".
The demonstrators carried large photos of Bush inscribed "World's 1 Terrorist" at the rally outside the US embassy amid tight police security.
01/20/2005 19:41 GMT - AFP