John Thornhill, Daniel Dombey, and Edward Alden, "Europe still sees US as greatest threat to stability," Financial Times, June 18 2006.

In a Harris opinion poll, published on the eve of Mr Bush’s latest visit to Europe this week, 36 per cent of respondents identify the US as the greatest threat to global stability.

The poll, conducted in association with the FT, questioned a representative sample of 5,000 people in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain on a range of issues. Thirty per cent of respondents named Iran as the greatest threat to global stability, with 18 per cent selecting China.

...At a US-European Union summit in Vienna on Wednesday, Mr Bush is likely to press for full payment of the billions of dollars in aid pledged by Europe for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of the nearly $14bn (£7.6bn, €11bn) pledged by all countries at donors’ conferences, less than $4bn has been disbursed.

...European leaders are expected to call on Mr Bush to close the detention centre at Guantánamo bay in Cuba, where three prisoners recently killed themselves.

Ursula Plassnik, Austria’s foreign minister, who is one of the summit’s hosts, said last week...

“Nobody can be placed in a legal vacuum...This does not correspond to our understanding of human rights.”

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