WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush's five-day trip to Europe highlighted his eagerness to move past the Cold War aftermath of the Second World War and encourage Europe's newly emerging democracies.
Bush's travels took him to from Latvia to Georgia with stops at a military ceremony in the Netherlands and in Moscow for elaborate commemorations marking the 60th anniversary of the allied victory over the Nazis.
The US president engaged in a delicate diplomatic balancing act to avoid ruffling Vladimir Putin's feathers in the Russian president's backyard. The two men stressed their close personal ties during their talks Sunday in Moscow.
But Bush matched effusive praise for the Russian people's "great bravery" and "sacrifice" in defeating the Nazis with stern reminders that the Baltic states and Georgia ended up under Soviet occupation.
He stood next to Putin as the two leaders observed a display of Russian military power parade past on Red Square under the old hammer-and-sickle flag. But Bush lost few chances to hammer away at the post-war legacy of the Soviet Union.
"The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history," he said.
In a speech in Riga, Bush even appeared to have second thoughts about his country's post-war policies and the February 1945 decision at Yalta to divide Europe into Soviet and allied zones.
This prompted a little history lesson the following day by his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who reminded reporters that the Yalta accords provided for democratic elections in the Soviet zone that were never held.
Bush's national security adviser, Steve Hadley, explained the president's trip to Europe was designed to be more than a simple celebration of the past.
"It's also a time to put the history behind us, to recognize it is a new Europe that has emerged out of the end of World War II and the fall of communism," Hadley said.
The message was clear in Georgia's capital of Tbilisi, where tens of thousands of people -- 150,000 according to President Mikhail Saakashvili -- acclaimed the American leader praised by his host as a "freedom fighter."
Saakashvili is in US eyes a posterboy for the new generation of European leaders. Educated in the United States and fluent in English, he has become a strong advocate for a market economy and clampdown on corruption.
He rode to power on the strength of a peaceful popular movement in 2003 labeled the "rose revolution," which Bush hailed as the herald of democratic movements erupting across world.
"In recent months, the world has marvelled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to Bishkek," Bush told an adoring crowd on Tbilisi's Freedom Square.
"But before there was a purple revolution in Iraq, or an orange revolution in Ukraine, a cedar revolution in Lebanon, there was a rose revolution in Georgia."
Bush's itinerary was loaded with countries that supported his deicison to invade Iraq in March 2003. Latvia, the Netherlands and Georgia all sent troops and Tbilisi even decided to strengthen its contingent.
The recent resurgence of violence in Iraq was not mentioned by Bush, who spent more of his time urging peaceful solutions to the problem of separatist minorities in the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Oil also provided part of the background to his trip. A trans-Georgia pipeline is due to go into service in September, linking the Caspian Sea with the Mediterranean while circumventing Russia and Iran.

05/11/2005 08:10 GMT