NATO allies pledge Iraq aid

And France and Germany renewed calls for a reform of transatlantic relations that would give greater weight to the emerging, enlarged EU as the key US partner, challenging the primacy Washington accords to NATO.

Bush told reporters after a summit of the 26 NATO leaders that the Cold War defence alliance remained the central security organisation binding Europe and the United States.

French President Jacques Chirac said he sensed in talks with Bush on Monday night that the US leader understood what he called the new European reality, in which the EU was taking on ever greater weight, including in defence.‘‘Europe and the United States are real partners. So we need to dialogue and listen to each other more,’’ he told the summit.

‘‘We must also, as the German chancellor has underlined, continue to take account of the changes that have occurred on the European continent,’’ Chirac said.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer trumpeted the agreement of all 26 allies to make some contribution to the Iraq training mission as a sign of the alliance’s rediscovered unity.

But that boast masked wide divergence in the level of help on offer. France, the most virulent European critic of the war, agreed for just one of its officers at NATO headquarters to help coordinate offers of equipment to the Iraqi military.

Bush later held talks with the 25-member EU on a tightly scripted day meant to highlight common purpose in rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan and spreading democracy in West Asia. He voiced worries that EU plans to end a ban on arms sales to China could change the balance with Taiwan,but hinted he could accept EU assurances that it would not lead to dangerous technology transfers. —Reuters