Copenhagen, Denmark – President Bush arrived Tuesday in Denmark, his first stop on a four-day European trip that seemed sure to show the United States at odds with many of the other big industrial nations on a variety of issues.
It is the president’s fourth trip to Europe since he began his second term in January, reflecting an effort to help address the tensions between the United States and its allies over Iraq. From Denmark, which he is visiting as a show of thanks for its commitment of troops to Iraq, Bush will fly to the Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland today for his annual summit meeting with the heads of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia.
There, he will confront an agenda, developed primarily by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, that has laid bare deep differences between the administration and all or most of the other governments over the best means of fighting global warming, and attacking poverty and disease in Africa.
Against the backdrop of unabated bloodshed in Iraq, the leaders also are expected to discuss how to nurture efforts to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And they will review the attempt by Britain, France and Germany to negotiate an agreement with Iran to end its nuclear program.
Despite the busy agenda, the policy rifts and the protests likely to greet the leaders in Scotland, Bush will make the trip with much of his attention still focused on the home front and his first Supreme Court nomination.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said aboard Air Force One en route here that Bush spent part of the flight reviewing dossiers on some of at least a half-dozen candidates under consideration to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who announced Friday that she was retiring.
Under prodding from Blair, Bush has announced a series of steps in recent weeks to show that the United States supports doing more to alleviate poverty in Africa.
But Bush has repeatedly refused to sign on to a commitment sought by many anti- poverty campaigners for the United States to increase aid to Africa to a specific level. He has also rebuffed Blair and the leaders of most other big industrial nations on proposals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, refusing to agree to numerical limits, which he says would be economically ruinous.