US President George W. Bush called on Europe today to fight terrorism alongside the US and said NATO needs "a new strategy," in an address to Germany's lower house of parliament that was briefly disrupted by four pacifist deputies.
"We face an aggressive force that glorifies death, that targets the innocent, that seeks... murder on a massive scale," Mr Bush told the Bundestag.
He said Europe and the US would "face these challenges together." At stake is "not just America and Europe. We are defending civilization itself."
Mr Bush was speaking on the first full day of a four-nation tour designed to reassure key US allies that Washington will not pursue the war against terrorism unilaterally.
He had earlier said his address would be a major expression of his administration's policy. Thousands of anti-war demonstrators have been in the streets of Berlin since his arrival.
And during Mr Bush's address, four deputies from the former communist Party of Democratic Socialism and the Greens, part of the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition, unfurled a protest banner and walked out.
The banner read: "Mr Bush and Mr Schroeder, Stop Your Wars." Other deputies shouted at the four, one of them wearing a red arm band, as they left.
On the war on terrorism launched after the September 11th attacks on the US, Mr Bush said terrorists are "seeking nuclear, chemical and biological weapons."
"Wishful thinking might bring comfort but not security," he said. "Call this a strategic challenge, call it, as I do, axis of evil, call it by any name you choose but let us speak the truth," he said.
Mr Bush said "NATO must be able and willing to act whenever threats emerge," including "all the assets of modern defense - mobile and deployable forces, sophisticated special operations, the ability to fight under the threat of chemical and biological weapons."
Mr Bush, who is traveling to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin Friday, said: "We must lay the foundations (for peace) with a Europe that is whole and free and at peace for the first time in its history."
AFP