Leaders in both countries have during the past few days for the first time explicitly said they hope for a swift US military victory and the toppling of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

While their comments could be read as a logical extension of the desire to avoid further loss of life, the softer tone does appear significant.

Analysts say that with Saddam all but doomed, the change in emphasis has as much to do with trying to influence the shape of post-war Iraq as the need to repair fractured relations with Washington.

"The anti-war Europeans are still irritated the Americans waged war without waiting for a fresh UN resolution, but they are trying to be pragmatic," said Henning Riecke, a foreign policy expert for the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relations.

He said pragmatism was one of the buzzwords at US Secretary of State Colin Powell's meetings Thursday in Brussels with his EU and NATO counterparts.

"It was the thought that we have to make the best of the situation."

The first sign of a shift was seen as early as March 20, when the conflict began.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany and French President Jacques Chirac "regretted" the war they had campaigned so fiercely against and hoped it would end quickly to avoid casualties.

But neither categorically condemned the military action. Reports in Berlin say Schroeder urged ministers to avoid emotive terms such as "aggression" and "illegitimate."

Then as now, they have focused on averting a humanitarian crisis and insist the United Nations should take the lead role in post-war Iraq.

But as US-led forces began the last push earlier this week, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said for the first time: "We hope the Baghdad regime will collapse as soon as possible."

"It's clear to Fischer that the war is not going to stop before the Saddam Hussein regime has collapsed," Riecke said.

The next day, in words eching US President George W. Bush, Schroeder hoped that "with the overthrow of the dictatorship, the Iraqi people will be able to realise its dream of a life in peace, freedom and self-determination."

Defence Minister Peter Struck followed suit Friday, saying Saddam "possibly has weapons of mass destruction."

Three weeks ago, Germany had been insisting that lack of evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was one of the key arguments against war.

"I suspect the Germans are already trying to patch things up, to show that transatlantic relations are very important and should not be set for ever on a confrontation course," said Riecke.

And France?

While Chirac has not spoken out on the matter in some days, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Tuesday that "our camp is the camp of democracy."

A close Chirac aide told AFP: "How do you think we could wish for anything other than the defeat of Saddam Hussein and victory for the Americans, even if we did disagree with them over the appropriateness of military intervention?"

France appears to be basing its policy on forging an alliance with Britain to internationalise a post-war settlement and maintain its own influence.

In a letter to Queen Elizabeth apologising for the defacement of a British war cemetery, Chirac said that the thought of all French people were with the British troops fighting in Iraq.

It was seen as an unmistakeable effort to woo France back into some kind of favour with Britain, the United States' closest ally with whom relations have reached an historic low.

Both countries -- France and Germany -- see the writing on the wall in Iraq as the war approaches a seemingly inevitable US victory.

SPACE.WIRE