March 26, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 22, 1424

LONDON, March 25: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday relations between Europe and the United States would have to be reassessed after the war in Iraq.

“There is, at the end of this, going to have to be a discussion and indeed a reckoning about the relations between America and Europe,” he said at a news conference.

In the run-up to war, huge divisions emerged within the United Nations. Britain backed Washington’s hawkish stance on Iraq and the French and Germans opposed a second UN resolution sanctioning war.

Some commentators have predicted the two sides will struggle to reconcile those differences and have warned that failure to do so could undermine the United Nations as a force for solving future international crises.

Mr Blair, who has gambled his political future on the decision to follow the United States into war, said it was wrong to stereotype Europe’s leading powers as simply pro- or anti-war.

He insisted there was wide support for his hardline stance on Iraq — particularly among the mainly Eastern European countries who are due to join the bloc shortly.

“It is not correct that Europe is all one-way in relation to this,” he told reporters.

“If you treat the accession countries as they will be this time next year — as members of the European Union — there is a majority for our position inside Europe.”—Reuters