Rumsfeld: US-Europe ties back to normal

Setting out Thursday on a three-nation European tour that started in Munich, Rumsfeld said in an interview that differences between allies are inevitable, and he dismissed suggestions that a major diplomatic effort will be required to mend fences.

Rumsfeld was attending a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Friday. On Saturday he planned to attend the yearly Munich Conference on Security Policy, which attracts officials, analysts and military leaders from around the globe.

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Throughout NATO's 55-year history, he said, the trans-Atlantic relationship "has gone from little difficulties to things better, from little difficulties to things better -- it's been a pattern over my entire adult lifetime."

"I would say the relationships right now are fairly normal."

Rumsfeld also said that although NATO may get more involved in Iraq at some point, "Its first task really is to do well (in) the Afghanistan task" of leading the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and managing civil aid teams in several provinces.

Rumsfeld said he expected Iraq to be a major topic of discussion during his two days in Munich. On Sunday he is scheduled to travel to Zagreb, Croatia, followed by meetings in London on Monday.

When speaking at the Munich conference a year ago, Rumsfeld was critical of Europeans who favored giving United Nations inspectors more time to determine whether Iraq possessed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Delay, Rumsfeld said, "could well make war more likely, not less, because delaying preparations (for war) sends a signal of uncertainty instead of a signal of resolve."

Almost a month later, US forces invaded, toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. So far, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. The head of the US search team, David Kay, told Congress last week that it appears that the administration's prewar claims were erroneous.

The political backdrop to Rumsfeld's return to Munich is the Bush administration's struggle to get past the divisiveness and mistrust that remain between US allies over the Iraq war and Bush's handling of its aftermath.

France, Germany and Belgium -- all NATO members -- strongly opposed going to war last year, and the French and German governments are against committing NATO troops to Iraq in a peacekeeping role.

France and Germany also were angered at Bush's decision to prohibit them from bidding on postwar reconstruction contracts financed by the US government. The White House later said it was reconsidering its position, but there has been no announced decision allowing French or German companies to bid.