Europeans welcome Iraq report as sign of change in US plans

BERLIN -- European leaders, who have been sharply critical of the Bush administration's occupation of Iraq, welcomed the U.S. advisory group's report on Iraq as a "necessary course correction" and a first step in a more realistic American view of the conflict.

The report's proposal to engage Iran and Syria found approval -- although talk of beginning a U.S. withdrawal made some officials wary that Washington may press European governments for help they are reluctant to give.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told the new French international news channel France 24 late Wednesday: "I think that it is a first step for the Americans to at last see this war in Iraq for what it is."

Karsten Voigt, the German government's coordinator on relations with the U.S., said on n-tv television that: "We should be happy that there is a course correction in the United States."

"If we as Europeans and as Germans can help diplomatically, then we should," he said. "We are also ready to help with reconstruction in Iraq, if the security situation permits."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he planned to press Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about which of the commission's recommendations the Bush administration planned to implement.

Steinmeier, who meets Rice on Friday in Washington, said he welcomed "the possibility to be able to discuss these details."

Voigt was clear that Germany would not send troops. Andreas Schockenhoff, a deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in parliament, warned the US against thinking there are "obligations for other NATO partners" from a withdrawal.

The group led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., recommended on Wednesday that U.S. forces largely withdraw from combat over the next year and focus on training Iraqis.

The report also called for stepped-up diplomatic efforts -- including talks with Iran and Syria, which President Bush has previously spurned -- to stabilize Iraq and revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Many Arabs on Thursday interpreted the bleak assessment of Bush's Iraq policies as proof of Washington's failure in the Middle East.

But others worried about the consequences if the U.S. follows the Iraq Study Group's suggestions, warning that the report could fuel insurgents and others vying to fill Iraq's security vacuum.

Mustafa Bakri, an outspoken critic of the U.S. and editor of the Egyptian tabloid Al-Osboa, told a state-run television show that the report indicated "the end of America."

Bakri, who supports Syrian President Bashar Assad and the former regime of Saddam Hussein, urged Arab countries to "capture the moment as America now is in its weakest period."

The Iraq Study Group's report was the top headline in many Arab newspapers on Thursday, including the Egyptian opposition daily Al-Wafd, which declared: "Bush confesses defeat in Iraq."

The paper's editor, Anwar el-Hawari, predicted that "this is the real end of Bush rule, his policies and the neo-conservative groups."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo will make its own decisions regarding its mission in Iraq following the release of the report. Abe's remarks came as the Cabinet's security council approved an extension of Japan's air force mission in Iraq through the end of July 2007. The mission was to have ended in mid-December.

Others warned that insurgents and countries including Iran were taking advantage of Bush's failures and the spiraling violence, and their influence would increase if the U.S. leaves.

"Al-Qaida must smell victory, but its a negative victory that comes from the defeat of America in Iraq," said Abdel Moneim Said, head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic studies in Cairo.

Wolfgang Gerhardt, the foreign policy expert for Germany's opposition Free Democrats, said in the Bild newspaper that the report "shows an awareness of reality ... and insight is the first step to improving things."

Former Defense Secretary Peter Struck, now parliamentary leader for the Social Democrats in parliament, said that "the U.S. succumbed to a great mistake in judgment: they wanted to be liberators but were perceive as occupiers. They will get out of this dilemma only with great difficulty."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)