Bush Embarks on a Sweep of European Capitals

By Sylvia Poggioli

Published February 20, 2005 at 12:00 AM EST

President Bush heads to Brussels, the self-styled European capital, to begin attempts to repair trans-Atlantic relations, severely damaged by divisions over the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The first international trip of Bush's second term will include meetings with French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Also on the president's agenda are sessions with NATO's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

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Sylvia Poggioli

Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.

See stories by Sylvia Poggioli

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