PRESIDENT George Bush arrived in Ukraine last night in preparation for his farewell Nato summit, which he hopes will salvage a foreign-policy legacy frayed by the Iraq war.
Seeking to reassert himself on the world stage in the twilight of his term, Mr 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 Mr B
ush even more unpopular overseas than at home, he could have a hard time swaying world leaders at this week's summit in Romania as they look to whoever will succeed him in January 2009.
"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 Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Lame-duck status will not be Mr Bush's only obstacle as he ventures abroad for the first in a series of international conferences marking his final year in office. On his first stop Mr Bush 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.
Mr Bush backs their bids for a road-map for membership, but may not have enough clout to overcome French and German misgivings at the summit, which starts in Bucharest tomorrow.
Another source of friction is Nato's role in the war in Afghanistan. Mr Bush wants a greater commitment from Nato partners reluctant to send troops to areas of heavy combat against a resurgent Taleban. A French offer of more forces has helped to ease the dispute, but it remains unresolved.
Mr Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, speaking en route to Ukraine, said it was "pretty clear" the summit would produce a strong statement about Afghanistan.
"All of us need to do more in Afghanistan, and I think you're going to see countries coming up and doing more," he said.
Mr Bush will share the summit spotlight with Vladimir Putin. How the two leaders interact may signal whether the West's relations with Russia will improve or deteriorate further. Mr Bush will then fly to Russia for a final round of one-on-one talks with Mr Putin before he steps down as Russian president in May.
The full article contains 425 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
