ROME - U.S. President George W. Bush visited one of his most rock-steady European supporters on Thursday: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
But serious problems back home intruded in a high-profile way on Bush's weeklong trip to Europe.
Tornadoes that killed four at an Iowa Boy Scout camp, destroyed most of the small town of Chapman in Kansas and also hit Minnesota and Nebraska have drawn Bush's intense attention, something his aides have been quick to point out. On Thursday, in his first comments to the news media since the Wednesday storms, Bush hastened to display his concern.
He said he was receiving regular updates, had called the governors of three of the affected states and promised whatever help was needed.
"We will assist these states in any way we can to help people recover from the devastation,'' Bush said. "It's a really tough time for the people in the midwestern part of the United States and they'll have the prayers of the American people.''
One of Bush's main priorities in Europe is asking his hosts to make greater contributions to Afghanistan, both in money and troops.
War-weary Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of violence and a spiralling heroin trade. Last year, more than 8,000 people were killed in insurgency-related attacks, the most since the 2001 U.S. invasion ousted the Taliban. Another 1,500 have died this year. Bush flatly called Afghanistan "broke'' before his trip.
Berlusconi said during their news conference that he and Bush discussed Italy's willingness to revise rules of engagement for its 2,000 troops participating in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. In fact, his government is taking steps to give Italian forces more flexibility that could mean temporary, rapid-response deployments to the dangerous front lines in Afghanistan's east and south, instead of only in the relatively safer regions where they are now.
American, British, Canadian, Dutch and Danish forces are taking on the brunt of the fighting in the more volatile areas of Afghanistan, and eager for help from allies.
Based on assurances from Italians, Bush jumped the gun a little and stated flatly that he was pleased to learn that "the caveats that have restricted your forces in Afghanistan have been removed.'' The Italians, however, appear to be lifting only some of the current restrictions on their forces, and have begun the process but not finished it.
Meanwhile, the political campaign to select Bush's successor in the White House -- a subject of intense interest in Europe as well as in the United States -- has come up at each stop here.
In Rome, Berlusconi said he preferred the man whom Bush also backs, Senator John McCain of Arizona, though in a way that could hurt the president's fellow Republican. The 71-year-old Italian leader said he wanted to see McCain in the White House next year because he is one month older and wouldn't make Berlusconi feel so ancient at world leader summits.
It was not exactly the sort of endorsement McCain needs. Dogged by questions about his age, he would be the oldest person ever to assume the presidency if elected and is running against 46-year-old Democrat Barack Obama.
Bush also was reminded of soaring gas prices that reached a new record at the pump on Thursday, rising to a national average of US$4.06 a gallon, and the Energy Department said it expects prices to remain around that level or higher well into 2009.
Bush has little power to bring energy costs down in the short-term. But he promised the United States would send a high-level official to a summit of both oil-producing and -consuming countries that was recently announced by Saudi Arabia. "The prices of gas are high and the American people don't like it and I can understand why they don't like it,'' Bush said.
As if that wasn't enough homestyle business for a travelling president, he also was confronted with the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision Thursday saying that terrorism-era prisoners kept at a prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to petition U.S. civilian courts to appeal their indefinite detention without charges. He said he disagreed with the ruling but would comply while deciding how to proceed.
While Bush was in Rome, his wife, Laura, was in Paris at an international donor conference where more than $21 billion was pledged for Afghanistan. Laura Bush delivered the news that the United States was pledging $10.2 billion of that for Afghan reconstruction.
What Berlusconi wanted from Bush is the ability to join a small club of countries trying to negotiate an end to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Italy has asked to be added to the group, which now includes the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China.
But key player Germany is opposed, and Bush gave no indication that he would choose Rome's request over Berlin's refusal. Though Bush said he'd "seriously consider'' Italy's interest, he urged Berlusconi to be involved anyway as a member of the European Union -- a strong hint that the idea is going nowhere.
Berlusconi, a conservative and a media mogul now in his third stint in power, has been a staunch Bush supporter, defending Bush against his unpopularity in Europe and supporting him on the war in Iraq from the start.
On Friday, Bush meets for the third time with Pope Benedict on a stop at the Vatican. He then flies to Paris for a speech on the state of U.S.-Europe relations and meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
