Europe and the United States must bury their differences to thwart terrorism, US President George W Bush said today at the site of a Nazi death camp in Poland.
On the first leg of a Europe and Middle East tour, Mr Bush began trying to restore transatlantic relations battered by the row over Iraq.
"The United States is committed to a strong Atlantic alliance to ensure our security, to advance human freedom and to keep peace in the world," he said, at Wawel castle, in Krakow.
"Today our alliance of freedom faces a new enemy, a lethal combination of terrorist groups, outlaw states seeking weapons of mass destruction, an ideology of power and domination that targets the innocent and justifies any crime," he said.
"This is a time for all of us to unite in the defence of liberty and to step up to the shared duties of free nations."
"This is no time to stir up divisions in a great alliance."
Mr Bush will later to travel to St Petersburg's 300th anniversary celebrations, also being attended by anti-war leaders, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Although Mr Bush called for an end to European and US splits, he signalled he was not prepared to dilute his stand which has infuriated several governments.
Each nation faces "difficult decisions about the use of military force to keep the peace" he acknowledged, in a carefully phrased reference to bitter wrangling over the US-led attack.
"We have seen unity and common purpose, we have also seen debate, some of it healthy, some of it divisive," he said.
Lining up his first presidential mission to the Middle East next week, Mr Bush also promised to do his best to secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
"For peace to prevail, all leaders must fight terrorism and shake off old arguments and old ways," he said.
"No leader of conscience can accept more months and years of humiliation and killing and mourning."
Mr Bush will co-host a summit between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jordan Wednesday, a day after meeting Arab leaders in Egypt.
The US leader, who has styled his war on Iraq as an anti-terror campaign and moral struggle of good against evil, paid tribute to more than a million victims of past horror at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.
"This site is a sobering reminder of the power of evil and the need for people to resist evil," he said, after surveying the blackened ruins of a gas chamber at the complex outside Krakow.
"When we find anti-Semitism, whether it be in Europe or anywhere else, mankind must come together to fight such dark impulses," a sombre Mr Bush said with his wife Laura at his side.
In remarks on Africa's food crisis unlikely to sit well with critics in Europe, the US leader called on European governments to drop opposition to genetically modified foods and to follow US aid policies linked to political reform.
"If European governments will adopt the same standards, we can work side by side in providing the kind of development aid that helps transform entire societies."
He also called on European governments to invest in their own defence.
"NATO must be prepared to meet the challenges of our time."
"A strong NATO alliance with a broad vision of its role will serve our security and the cause of peace," said Mr Bush, arguing the alliance should be prepared to act beyond its borders.
He announced a new initiative to permit a ban on suspicious cargos on planes and trains designed to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Bush will tomorrow leave St Petersburg for the Group of Eight summit of industralised nations in Evian, France, where he will have face-to-face meetings with Chirac, and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
AFP