After an upbeat meeting Saturday with the European Union, US officials predicted the NATO summit opening Monday in Turkey would finally bury what President George W. Bush called "bitter differences" over last year's invasion.

The officials said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has balked at providing more troops for Iraq, was virtually certain to approve training for Iraqi security forces in a gesture with important diplomatic overtones.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told "Fox News Sunday" from Turkey that the Istanbul summit would produce "a strong political commitment that the countries of NATO understand that the future of Iraq is important to them."

Rice also went on ABC News to praise the "very good support" the United States was getting from Europe, where countries such as France and Germany had staunchly opposed the war to topple Saddam Hussein.

"I think you will see more (support) now that there is a (UN) Security Council resolution and as the reconstruction phase really kicks in," she said in a reference to the UN vote early this month endorsing the new interim Iraqi government.

A senior administration official, briefing reporters aboard Air Force One as it flew from Ireland to Turkey, exulted in what the aide called "the most productive US-EU summit" since Bush assumed the presidency in January 2001.

"It's very clear that you now have a political consensus between the United States and Europe on the way forward -- not a political consensus in retrospect about Iraq last year, but a consensus on what we do now," the official said.

Although the EU made no mention of a future military role in Iraq in the joint statement issued after the summit in Ireland, the senior US official said the Europeans still blessed the multinational force on the ground.

"This means that the European Union member states who have troops in Iraq now can no longer be accused by anyone of acting against a general European consensus," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But a potential new row loomed over where to train the Iraqi security forces, with both Paris and Berlin refusing to send instructors into Iraq.

Rice said Sunday that NATO members, as opposed to the alliance itself, would handle the instruction and "most of the training will need to take place in Iraq" with perhaps part of it in another country.

But Secretary of State Colin Powell told CBS television that the site for training "hasn't been determined" and would be discussed at the NATO summit.

Bush and his main war allies, prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain and Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, have worked hard to forge a display of trans-Atlantic unity, but it escaped them at a summit of eight leading powers two weeks ago.

If they were able to bask in the unanimous UN Security Council resolution putting the world body's stamp on the restoration of Iraqi self-rule on Wednesday, there was no agreement on sending more troops or on how much Iraqi debt to forgive.

Bush, who faces a tough fight for re-election in November, hopes to refurbish his diplomatic image at a time when support for the war has plunged and his Democratic rival John Kerry is pushing for wider international involvement.

New polls show a majority of Americans now consider the invasion a mistake but Powell said Sunday that they were a reaction to the recent spate of violence that has plagued Iraq ahead of the handover of power.

"I hope that as the Iraqi government takes over, the American people will see that they are taking over and they now have sovereignty and they are now in charge of their country and moving their country in the right way," he told

"I think in due course they will see that we have made the right decision, and what we are doing is noble work. And those (poll) numbers will change," Powell said in an interview from Turkey.

The Americans appeared at loggerheads with the new Iraqi government, however, over the immediate fate of ousted dictator Saddam Husein, who was arrested in December and was due to be tried on charges of warcrimes and crimes against humanity.

Powell said Sunday that while US forces planned to transfer legal authority over Saddam to the Iraqis sometime soon, "physical custody would remain in our hands for the foreseeable future."

This appeared to contradict Iyad Allawi, the new Iraqi prime minister, who told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday that Saddam would be moved early next month to a new jail with Iraqi guards and limited support from the US-led military.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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