EUobserver.com: EU speaks with one voice on Iraq

From a report by Andrew Rettman:

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU has put aside its bickering over the budget and the constitution to put its weight behind the international effort to rebuild Iraq, but Wednesday's (22 June) summit did little beyond expressing optimism for the future of the war-torn country.

"Europe has been split down the middle, but people are now willing to put the divisions of the past behind them", UK foreign secretary Jack Straw said, referring to last week's Franco-British row over the EU's 2007-2013 financial plan.

His comments echoed earlier remarks from the Irish, US and eastern European delegations that the talks were marked by a forward-looking spirit on all sides, with French, Iranian and Syrian diplomats declining to revisit former jibes at the US and UK's intervention in the region.

"We are now in a different phase", a western European diplomatic contact noted. "And that's - stuff it! We didn't like what you did but now we'll have to get together and help, to work for a good cause".

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