Bush "emphasized common aims and glossed over differences" in his first major speech of the trip Monday in Brussels, said The Wall Street Journal, which also noted that he "saved some of his sharpest rhetoric for Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Bush's speech, added the journal, "was delivered to restrained applause, and foreshadowed what aides have said will be a blunt discussion with Mr. Putin in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Thursday."

The New York Times said Bush's discourse "was most striking for his toughest words yet about ... Putin's rollback of democratic reforms and crackdown on dissent."

USA Today called Bush's speech "his most emphatic rebuke yet of Putin."

Despite Bush's efforts to mend relations with Europe, which have been strained since the US-led invasion of Iraq nearly two years ago, stark differences remain over Iraq, how to confront Iran's nuclear ambitions and the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Nevertheless, the newspapers highlighted the dinner Bush hosted at the US Embassy in Brussels for French President, Jacques Chirac.

"The friendliest gesture during the dinner ... was not political or personal, but culinary," said The New York Times, noting that alongside the beef with bordelaise sause was a side dish of potatoes which one participant said Bush announced as "French fries."

"No longer would thin slices of potatoes cooked in oil be 'freedom fries,'" added the daily, recalling how some here called the dish -- tongue in cheek -- after France so vehemently opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

But despite even this small goodwill gesture toward France, the Times added quoting a top US official, "France on Monday night remained the lone holdout among the 26 members of NATO, unwilling to contribute either troops or money to Iraq specifically under a formal NATO umbrella."

But it was The Wall Street Journal which voiced the strongest doubt about the mending of US-EU relations by bringing up Europe's intention to lift its 15-year-old arms embargo on China despite US objections.

"The disagreement risks damaging the very relations Mr. Bush's trip was meant to repair," said the economic daily.

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