Connacht/Ulster MEP Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon was among those who joined US President, Mr George W. Bush, at a national prayer breakfast today.
At the breakfast Mr Bush, vowed to end discrimination against religious institutions and reassured Americans he would not try to impose his own faith on them.
Mr Bush, speaking about religion for the fourth day in a row, used the annual event to address concerns about his initiative allowing faith-based organizations to gain access to federal dollars to help pay for their solutions to social ills.
He also revisited his campaign themes of returning civility to politics and changing the tone in Washington, urging for public debate be free from bitterness and anger and rancor and ill will.
Like every one of his predecessors since Mr Dwight Eisenhower, Mr Bush dwelt on the breakfast's 49-year-old tradition of bringing together members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, Cabinet members and judges to share in the spirit of unity regardless of their religious views.
Mr Bush also insisted his faith-based plan to give religious groups a greater role in curing social problems like homelessness, alcoholism and drug addiction by letting them compete for government grants, would not cross the constitutional boundary separating church and state.
Along with Ms Scallon, the foreign leaders who attended the breakfast included President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of the Slovak Republic.
The foreign ministers of the Bahamas, Montenegro, Romania and Albania also were present, along with two former Pakistani prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Mr Bush did not meet with any of them, leaving immediately after the closing prayer and song following his brief speech.
Additional reporting Reuters