Prague, Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will work to convince U.S. President George W. Bush that he is a reliable partner at a meeting of NATO leaders in Prague. Analysts say he may not succeed. During his campaign for September's election, Schroeder said a war against Iraq would be an ``adventure'' and ruled out any participation by Germany in an attack to remove Saddam Hussein from power. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said relations with Germany were ``poisoned'' by his stance. ``We frittered away the trust that had built up and it will take a long time to restore it,'' said Joachim Krause, a professor of international policy at the University of Kiel in north Germany. ``As long as this government is in power, nothing will fundamentally change Germany's isolation.''
Schroeder's opposition to a war on Iraq has damaged sales to the U.S., destination for about a 10th of German exports, the VDMA machine industry lobby said. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the world's biggest printing press maker, predicted a possible ``disturbance of customer relations.'' Bush plans to use the Prague NATO summit to seek support for possible military action against Iraq. Schroeder, who won reelection with the narrowest majority of any postwar government two months ago, has said Germany won't change its stance. Iraq ``will be disarmed one way or the other in the name of peace,'' Bush said after meeting Czech President Vaclav Havel. ``If the decision is made to use military force, we will consult with our friends and we hope that our friends will join us.''
Snubbed
The two leaders, who haven't met one-on-one since Germany's election, won't hold bilateral talks in Prague. They last spoke, on the phone, on Nov. 8. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said then that Bush was ``interested in getting down to business'' with Germany. A senior foreign policy adviser to Schroeder said neither requested a meeting at the NATO summit. Instead, Bush will meet U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair - who has backed his call for an attack on Iraq if it doesn't disarm -- and French President Jacques Chirac, who helped craft the United Nations resolution warning Iraq of ``serious consequences'' if it doesn't cooperate fully with weapons inspectors. ``Germany is not a reliable partner any more on defense issues,'' said Carlo Masala, a foreign policy analyst at Cologne University. ``Instead France is moving into that place.'' Europe's largest economy barely grew for a third quarter, government figures today showed. Gross domestic product expanded 0.3 percent in the third quarter, compared with 0.2 percent in the previous three months.
`Appalled'
Schroeder's opposition to a war against Iraq won the approval of three-quarters of German voters, opinion polls conducted during the election campaign showed. Relations with the U.S. went from bad to worse when his justice minister, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, compared Bush's political methods with those of Adolf Hitler. ``I was appalled how Chancellor Schroeder won his election,'' Tom Lantos, a California Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee, told reporters in Prague. Germany is also under pressure to boost spending on defense as NATO's role changes with the end of the Cold War and the rise of the terrorist threat. European Union budget requirements have prompted successive German governments to cut defense spending to almost half the NATO average of 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. ``Germany spends too little on defense,'' said Masala. ``If our armed forces had to take part in operations in any more parts of the world, they would be on the brink of collapse.'' //www.quote.bloomberg.com