WASHINGTON, March 19: US-European relations have hit a crisis point over Iraq, according to a report released on Friday by 26 European and US personalities.

"The transatlantic relationship is under greater strain today than at any point in at least a generation," said the report led by former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.

"Many Europeans assume malign intent on the part of the United states. Many Americans resent European behavior and dismiss European perception of today's threats," it added. "The war in Iraq brought these strains to the point of crisis," argue the authors in the report sponsored by New York's Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

"France and Germany organized resistance to the US in the UN security council - alongside Russia, historically NATO's chief adversary," the report said. "The Bush administration, in turn, sought to separate these states from other members of the alliance and the European Union," the report added.

"For a time, rhetoric replaced diplomacy as the primary instrument for taking positions, making criticisms, and shaping coalitions," according to the report.

Others signing the report include Italian senator Giuliano Amato; French Foreign Relations Institute chief Thierry de Montbrial; former deputy treasury secretary Stuart Eizenstat; former US ambassador to Paris Felix Rohatyn; German journalist Josef Joffe; and Brent Scowcroft, a former adviser to presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush, senior.

DROP IN SUPPORT: A poll released this week by the Pew Research Center of opinion in eight European and Middle Eastern countries showed that popular support for the United States among many of its traditional allies had dropped in the year after the Iraq invasion, leaving foreign policy experts worried.

The poll showed that dislike and even contempt for the US was growing. Among Europeans, particularly in France and Germany, much of the public had lost confidence in the honesty of the US government and its commitment to democracy, it showed.

In some Muslim allies like Pakistan and Jordan, a majority of respondents had a more favorable view of Osama bin Laden than of the United States. "It should be of deep concern to Americans to see the extent to which we are disliked by what used to be our friends. We need partners to fight terrorism and conduct foreign policy," said Pew pollster Andrew Kohut. -Reuters