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German diplomat launches attack on US foreign policy

The Bush administration has forfeited legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of most of the world, crippling its capacity to engineer a breakthrough on the gravest problems on the international agenda, a senior German official argued yesterday.

In an unusually robust public critique of US foreign policy, Wolfgang Ischinger, the German ambassador to Britain, said the widespread collapse in confidence in the Bush administration offered Europe an opportunity to step up to the plate, setting a new agenda on the Middle East, global warming, the spread of nuclear weapons and other pressing matters.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Ischinger, a former ambassador to the US and ex-political director of Germany's foreign ministry, said a "European moment" was needed over the next several months, a period that coincides with Germany's presidency of both the EU and the G8 group of industrialized countries.

"Through the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Washington's international legitimacy and credibility have suffered," he said. "It does not make for pleasant viewing to see US leadership damaged and questioned. But expectations are low today regarding the ability of the United States to lead the international community toward solutions of the most pressing international issues."

He singled out the nuclear dispute with Iran, the challenges posed by global warming and the Middle East conflict as key policy areas where the US had been discredited and the EU can make a difference.

However, he also warned against EU "hubris" and made plain that the EU could not succeed by challenging or seeking to rival the US.

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