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Bush heads to Bucharest for farewell NATO meet

US President George W. Bush was scheduled to leave yesterday for his farewell NATO summit and a final heads-of-state meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in a bid to salvage a foreign policy legacy frayed by the Iraq war.

Seeking to reassert himself on the world stage in the twilight of his term, Bush will press NATO for more troops in Afghanistan, try to keep up momentum in the alliance's eastward expansion and attempt to ease strains with Russia.

But with Bush even more unpopular overseas than at home, he could have a hard time swaying world leaders at this week's Bucharest summit as they look to whomever will succeed him in next January.

"Many of them are looking forward now to the next president in Washington and are already thinking about what the 2009 summit will bring," said Julianne Smith, a Europe analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lame-duck status will not be Bush's only obstacle as he ventures abroad for the first in a series of international conferences marking his final year in office.

Overhanging his travels will be the five-year-old Iraq war, which has damaged US credibility with friends and foes alike. The latest spike in fighting has increased doubts of further drawdowns of US forces before Bush leaves office.

He will also be trailed by a financial crisis at home that has roiled global markets and sharpened criticism of his economic stewardship, once seen as a bright spot on his record.

Bush's first stop will be Ukraine, where he will try to reassure Kiev's reform-minded government over its aspirations for NATO membership but offer no firm guarantees.

European partners are wary of letting Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance because of opposition from Moscow, which sees it as encroachment on the former Soviet sphere of influence.

Bush backs their bids for a roadmap for membership but may not have enough clout to overcome French and German misgivings at the summit in Bucharest this week.

Another source of friction is NATO's role in the war in Afghanistan, which has led to transatlantic finger-pointing.

Bush wants a greater commitment from NATO partners reluctant to send troops to areas of heavy combat against a resurgent Taliban. A French offer of more forces has helped ease the dispute but it remains unresolved.

Bush will share the summit spotlight with Putin, an unusual guest of the Western alliance. How the two leaders interact may signal whether the West's relations with Russia will improve or deteriorate further.

Afterward, Bush will fly to Russia for a final round of one-on-one talks with Putin before he steps down as Russian president next month.

Demanding more troop contributions from alliance members for the second front in the "war on terror," where failure would be seen as a personal blow, has emerged as a priority for Bush.

Facing accusations of neglecting the mission in Afghanistan to focus on the war in Iraq, Bush affirmed that "there is no better opportunity to deal with the threats of terror than in Afghanistan" and that he heads to Bucharest "to encourage people to take our obligations seriously."

His decision to commit an additional 3,500 Marines should "set an example and encourage others to participate," he told reporters. Less than a year before he leaves office, Bush knows his reputation rests in large measure on success in Afghanistan.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that he would strengthen France's presence there should "ensure" a successful NATO summit, Bush said.

But while the discord throughout Europe over the war in Iraq seems remote, Afghanistan continues to be divisive among the NATO allies.

Some countries such as Germany "are being beaten up" by the Bush administration because they aren't doing well enough in Afghanistan, said Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The German government has also underlined its opposition to NATO opening the door to membership to former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia, and about half of the 25 other NATO members have cast doubt on the bids too.
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