BERLIN: What a difference a year makes. At the 2003 Munich Security Conference - the top annual venue for global defence issues - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld famously clashed over the Iraq war.

Fischer, his voice shaking with emotion, underlined the worst split in German-American relations since 1945 by turning to Rumsfeld in front of TV cameras, jabbing his finger and declaring: "Excuse me, I'm not convinced."

The US responded by icily ignoring Germany's anti-Iraq war stance and President George W. Bush refused to speak with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for almost a year. Fast forward to last month.

Fischer used the same meeting, attended by almost 50 foreign and defence ministers, to issue proposals strikingly similar to President Bush's Greater Middle East Initiative aimed at pushing reforms in an arc of nations from Morocco to Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld, shedding his sometimes confrontational tone, reached out to European allies for assistance by calling for a bigger Nato role in Afghanistan and for the Alliance to be inserted into Iraq. Fischer, in a concession to Washington, underlined that Berlin - while unwilling to send troops - would not block sending Nato to Baghdad.

"Neither the US nor Europe and the Middle East itself can tolerate the status quo in the Middle East any longer," said Fischer, adding: "The Middle East is at the epicentre of the greatest threat to our regional and global security at the dawn of this century, namely destructive jihadi terrorism and its totalitarian ideology."

This kind of tough talk paved the way for Schroeder's successful meeting with Bush in the White House on Feb 27 where the two leaders vowed to coordinate efforts for a joint proposal on the Greater Middle East to be unveiled at three international summits in June.

The meetings are the G8 summit of industrial nations at Sea Island, Georgia; a Nato summit in Istanbul; and a US summit with European Union (EU) leaders in Dublin.

President Bush went out of his way to praise Germany's military role in Afghanistan where Berlin has deployed 2,000 soldiers. Officials also noted that Schroeder's backing for Turkish EU membership is warmly welcomed by Washington. -dpa