Brussels Braces For President Bush

Brussels braced for protests as the city prepared for a three-day visit by President Bush, who on Sunday starts a conciliatory swing through Europe for talks with more than two dozen European leaders.

It's a fence-mending mission - meant to further repair relationships with friends and allies damaged by differences over the invasion of Iraq, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

Brussels police are mounting an unprecedented security operation, deploying 2,500 officers — 1,000 more than usually deployed for the three or four summits that bring EU leaders to the Belgian capital each year.

An alliance of 88 environmental, human rights, peace and other groups plans two days of protests to demand "no European complicity" in a U.S.-designed world order. Police say streets will be cordoned off and public transport rerouted or limited.

The 'Stop Bush' campaign plans protests near the U.S. embassy in downtown Brussels on Monday and near the EU headquarters on Tuesday. Its Web site accuses the American president of "crimes against humanity and the planet."

It features a litany of reasons to "stop Bush," calling Washington a major obstacle to a world order "based on international law." The protesters say Mr. Bush's administration is eroding efforts to combat global warming and is guilty of "human rights violations at home and abroad in the name of national security."

On Monday, Mr. Bush meets with King Albert II at the Royal Palace and with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt before giving a speech on trans-Atlantic relations. In the evening, he is to dine with French President Jacques Chirac, his primary opponent to the war in Iraq.

Ahead of their meetings with Mr. Bush, European leaders have signaled a keenness to narrow the gap with Washington on Iraq and other contentious issues.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Mr. Bush said he doesn't believe the West is split between an "idealistic United States and a cynical Europe."

"America and Europe are the pillars of the free world," Mr. Bush said.

"Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic understand that the hopes for peace in the world depend on the continued unity of free nations," he said. "We do not accept a false caricature that divides the Western world between an idealistic United States and a cynical Europe."

Iraq will be a top agenda item during Mr. Bush's talks. The United States wants to see a larger international role in Iraq, particularly in training its military and police.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers are to announce the opening of an EU office in Baghdad to oversee a democracy-building program that will train hundreds of Iraqi judges and prosecutors.

The 25-nation EU plans to train more than 700 judges, prosecutors and prison guards outside Iraq and provide $3 million for the Baghdad office that will recruit Iraqis and have a staff of about five.

Mr. Bush will have breakfast with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday, before meeting the leaders of NATO's 26 member-nations at the alliance's headquarters on Brussels' northeastern outskirts.

In the afternoon, he moves across town to meet with the 25 EU leaders, followed by a dinner with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, foreign policy chief Javier Solana, EU Security Affairs and External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Mr. Bush will then travel to Germany on Wednesday, before heading to Slovakia for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In interviews with European journalists at the White House Friday, Mr. Bush said Washington does not intend to attack Iran to crush its suspected nuclear weapons project, but added that "you never want a president to say never."

He said he hoped a European diplomatic initiative would persuade Tehran to abandon any such program.

Mr. Bush also told European journalists a tale about meeting a Texan when he was at a sheep farm in Scotland back in the 1950s.

"I worked there as a 14-year-old kid," Mr. Bush said. "I went from Texas to Scotland to work on a sheep farm. I'm riding a bike. ... A big tour bus stops. They got off and a woman with a Texas accent (said): 'Look at the little Scottish boy!'"

"I kept my mouth shut," Mr. Bush said.

In another exchange, the president joked, "Can you imagine if my name had been Mungo Bush?" when a British reporter asked him to autograph a book for his son, Mungo. Bush seemed amused by the name.