By Joji Sakurai
AP - Rome
The words may have been more conciliatory, but many Europeans sensed that the swagger was still there.
George W. Bush's outreach efforts to European leaders this week appear to have gone a way toward establishing an official thaw, but citizens around the continent remain deeply resistant to giving in to any charm offensive from a man they view as dangerous and irresponsible.
Above all, Europeans balk at the underlying message coming through all the sweet talk from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the president himself: America intends to be the world's policeman and expects Europe's help in toppling tyranny around the globe.
"We Don't Need You, Cowboy," read one sign in a protest in Mainz, Germany, where Bush warmly shook hands Wednesday with one of the fiercest critics of his Iraq adventure, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
A tete-a-tete in Brussels earlier in the week appeared to have convinced French President Jacques Chirac - the man who came to symbolize world opposition to the Iraq war - that Bush is now ready for "a true partnership."
But while leaders have pragmatic interests - ranging from trade to security issues - that may make friendly ties with the world's most powerful person a wise idea, it's at street level that Europe's real pulse regarding Bush may be felt.
There, many people expressed cynicism about Washington's intentions.
"At the moment, the United States needs Europe to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East, notably in Iraq. Europe is an ally to Bush, which he is simply using," said Emmanuel Rozo, 29, a communications worker in Paris.
At the heart of the trans-Atlantic divide are deep philosophical differences born of history that may not be so easily erased by a whirlwind tour.
Many Europeans still vividly remember the devastation of the two world wars. They are enjoying peace and prosperity after centuries of almost non-stop conflict on their soil.
Many associate military adventures abroad with a sense of guilt, pain and loss.
It is in this context that Europeans read Bush's enjoinder to hop aboard a crusade to spread democracy around the world. Some do not share the view of democracy as a cure-all. Others don't think it should be "exported."
Still others - noting U.S. alliances with shady regimes - see the whole thing as a mask for other agendas.
Even among those who believe Bush, many suspect he is naive and suffers from the same type of hubris that led to disaster in European empires from ancient Rome to that of Napoleon Bonaparte in more recent times.
"Europe has had disillusionments too great to permit a return to that purist belief in the transforming power of democratic institutions," columnist Janet Daley wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph. "What was left standing in the ruins of the Bonapartist experiment was effectively demolished by the two world wars."

Wherever the president has traveled this week, the jocular backslapping between Bush and continental leaders has contrasted sharply with the popular welcome he has received.

In Brussels, raucous demonstrations forced police to fire water cannons to disperse crowds gathered outside EU headquarters. In Mainz, protesters dragged a float portraying a prisoner being beaten at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison through the city.

In Slovakia, which Bush visits Thursday and whose government has sent troops to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, people say they just want to see their soldiers come home.

"I see the presence of troops in Iraq negatively. There is no reason to be there," said Jan Galusek, a 63-year-old retiree.

Many Europeans still bridle at what they see as Bush's bullying tone.

"He expects people to follow orders," said Serena Montanaro, 24, a media studies student in Rome. "He blows the whistle and others follow."

On top of that, few people in Europe - where oratory and nuance are the hallmark of public life, and philosophers are still part of the celebrity circuit - seem to connect with Bush's plain-spoken bluntness.

Still, some commentators did express delight that Washington appeared finally to be acknowledging Europe's presence.

"U.S. President George Bush has learned how to spell EU at the start of his second term," said the Tages Anzeiger, a newspaper in Zurich, Switzerland.

Others expressed admiration for Bush's muscular approach to foreign policy, and hoped he'd return to his brash old self to whip "weak" Europeans into action.

"One wishes in all friendliness that George W. Bush, following his charm offensive, soon returns to rawer tones toward his trans-Atlantic partners," said Vienna newspaper Der Standard.

Britain's Guardian newspaper cautioned in an editorial that Bush's "flattering tone could not conceal key areas of U.S.-European disagreement."

Among them:

- Europe is eager to win an Iranian pledge to not pursue nuclear weapons with diplomacy; Bush, even while trying to allay fears of an attack on Iran Tuesday, added in his very next sentence that "all options are on the table."

- The United States opposes Europe's intention to lift an arms embargo on China.

- European leaders remained largely silent as Bush bluntly demanded that Syrian troops "and secret services" quit Lebanon.

All these disagreements contain the possible seed of future discord.

"At times he stretched credibility," the newspaper opined. "To say that `no power on earth will ever divide us,' has the sort of mock biblical resonance that often appears in his speeches but sounds hollow considering substantial differences."