Brdo, Slovenia - As US President George W Bush makes a week- long European farewell tour, few on the continent will be sad to see him go. A summit with European Union leaders, visits to his political allies in Western Europe, an audience with Pope Benedict XVI: Bush is going out on a note of friendship, even while raising new jitters in Europe about possible US or Israeli strikes on Iran.
Attention has already shifted to who will replace him in the White House in January, inheriting trans-Atlantic relations still fraught by the Iraq war, the Guantanamo Bay prison and discord over issues such as global warming.
"The mood is still very, very sour. It's one of disappointment," said Daniel Hamilton, a Europe expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. "There's not an incentive on the European side to help George W Bush."
Iran moved up on the agenda of Tuesday's EU-US summit in Slovenia after Bush signalled he would prod Europeans to step up pressure on the Islamic republic, which the US says is seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
"I will continue to work on this trip to talk about the dangers of a nuclear Iran," Bush told Italian television before leaving Washington. As is customary for a US commander-in-chief, he said the option of using military force remains open.
European nations prefer diplomacy to rein in Iran, and the Bush administration has gone along so far. But last week's threat by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz that his country might attack Iran heightened European fears of a military conflagration.
In many ways, Bush is a weakened leader on what is expected to be his last visit to the old continent before he leaves office in January. One reason is concern about the future of US economic power and openness to trade as the nation flirts with recession.
The EU and the US are the world's biggest trading partners, but EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson says both have to adjust to new realities.
"The Atlantic world is no longer the centre of the economic world, because the economic world no longer has a centre," he said in remarks prepared for delivery Monday in New York.
Meeting at a secluded luxury resort near the Slovenian Alps, Bush and EU leaders were expected to issue a broad statement reaffirming trans-Atlantic ties after discussing topics such as the Middle East, growing Russian influence in its neighbourhood and stability in the Balkans.
For most Europeans, Bush remains the president who stalled on fighting global warming, promoted human rights violations in the "war on terror" and sought to divide Europe into allies and foes.
"European bureaucrats are exasperated with Bush," said Riccardo Alcaro, an analyst at the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs.
Over the past year, Bush has warmed a bit to global action against climate change. He has won a new ally in French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In Italy, an old one has returned: Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
While both sides have smoothed over the worst rifts, Europeans - fascinated by Barack Obama's run to the Democratic Party's nomination - are hopeful that the US presidential election in November will be a real catalyst for change.
"Once President Bush is out of the White House, there will be huge expectations in Europe that a new, rosy dawn of peace and love is appearing over the Atlantic," said Reginald Dale, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
"They are liable to be somewhat disappointed because America is still going to look after its own interests and then the fundamental interests may not have changed that much," he said.
