European press review

As US President George W Bush crosses from "Old" into "New" Europe, papers assess the summit in Germany and look ahead to his meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Bratislava on Thursday.

Elsewhere, a Spanish daily is concerned about perceived erosion of liberties in the UK.

Alien friend

German newspapers see a thaw in the relationship between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Bush after their meeting in Mainz on Wednesday.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung says although the meeting was marked by "pointed warmth", there is still a long way to go.

Under the headline "The alien friend", the daily recalls another summit and another US president and observes that "best friends" are received differently.

The mere fact that Berlin and Washington have become partners again is more than could have been expected two years ago Sueddeutsche Zeitung

"No bigger contrast is conceivable than that between a deserted Mainz city centre under tight surveillance and the streets of Berlin, where in 1963 an ecstatic crowd paid homage to John F Kennedy," it says.

It believes that, for a long time to come, the US relationship with Germany will not be as special as its relationship with Britain or Israel.

"But the mere fact that Berlin and Washington have become partners again is more than could have been expected two years ago," it says.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the chancellor and the president did not give the impression that "a deep, personal friendship will ever blossom between them".

But "something has changed" in their mutual assessment and esteem, it says.

The paper suggests that bridging difference over Iraq does not necessarily mean that all will be well in the future.

"This won't happen, and it cannot happen," it continues, because "strategic decoupling and political-cultural alienation cannot be brought to an end by a visit".

'Primitive anti-Americanism'

Austria's Die Presse is worried about what it perceives as rise in anti-Americanism" in Europe.

It reports that the latest opinion poll in Germany suggests that more Germans trust Russian President Vladimir Putin than they trust President Bush while more Slovaks regard Mr Putin as a better democrat.

"You may think of Putin as being lots of things, but one thing he certainly isn't: a democrat," the paper says, adding that "at the same time democracy in the United States is not under threat."

This is because "Bush clouds people's minds," it says.

"Primitive anti-Americanism in Europe now reaches far beyond the group of those on the far right and the far left who have always hated America. This is what is worrying."

Lesson in democracy

According to France's Le Figaro, "Bush's lesson in democracy to Putin" will be high on the agenda when they meet in Bratislava.

The paper believes that Mr Bush will seek "to explain to Putin the fundamental principles underlying democracy... such as respect for human rights and freedom of the press", suggesting that the implication of this is that "these are far from being respected in Russia".

Tension and disagreements are multiplying between Messrs Bush and Putin Le Monde

Many Russian and US analysts, see "a crisis brewing between the two countries", the daily says, after Mr Bush said on Tuesday he would seek to convey to Mr Putin the concerns about the state of democracy in Russia raised at the Brussels summit and after Mr Putin defended Russia's way of democracy.

France's Le Monde says that relations between the two men "have worsened, with criticisms being expressed both in Washington and Moscow".

"Tension and disagreements are multiplying between Messrs Bush and Putin" it believes.

The meeting takes place in "a deteriorating context, far from the hopes of a solid alliance which were stoked during the first mandates of both presidents", it argues.

But the paper believes that Mr Bush will make his remonstrations "with tact", in a bid "not to reduce to zero 'strategic partnership' which was proclaimed in 2002" which, the paper says is rooted in the fight against terrorism "and the idea that one day petrol from Siberia will abundantly supply American petrol stations".

The reunion is taking place in a cold climate Le Temps

Switzerland's Le Temps says the reunion is taking place "in a cold climate".

"Relations have been tense since the Kremlin denounced US support for the Georgian and Ukrainian revolutions", the paper says, noting that the meeting comes at the time when "it is no longer a question of a 'war on terror' but rather of a 'fight for freedom'".

In the host country, Pravda says "despite meeting each other in Europe, Asia will be at stake".

The daily says the two leaders are unlikely to discuss the future enlargement of Nato "because both Bush's and Putin's foreign policy is subordinate to money and Moscow's national interests are now in China and India".

Therefore, the paper adds, "Nato is no longer an organisation which might seriously damage Russia's interests".

Restricting liberties

Finally, the theme of democracy and liberties, this time in the UK, preoccupies the mind of a commentator in Spain's El Pais.

"The United Kingdom, a model state governed by law", has been following a course of restricting liberties since the 11 September attacks, the daily says, commenting on the anti-terror plans which passed a first vote in Britain's House of Commons yesterday.

This, it says, "is based in the government's view, emphasized by Blair yesterday, that the security of the country is seriously threatened by international terrorism".

Even if this is the case, the paper says, "the law is founded on the dangerous principle that restrictions on basic civil rights in a democracy can be imposed by a politician rather than a judge".

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.