EU Agrees Training for Iraqi Police, Judges

[Placebo]

The European Union offered to provide training for Iraqi police and judges on Monday in a move aimed at ending a transatlantic rift over Iraq on the eve of a summit with President Bush.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels approved a plan to train 770 senior Iraqi police officers and judges in the EU and in countries near Iraq. The mission, due to start mid-2005, could be extended to Iraq if security allowed.

"This is the first united EU action ... which goes beyond the monetary, the economic aid that we have offered," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a news conference. "That will be very important for the meetings we will have here tomorrow with President Bush," he added.

Ties between Europe and the United States suffered their worst crisis since World War II in 2003 in a dispute over the U.S.-led war in Iraq, prosecuted despite resistance led by France in the U.N. Security Council.

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[Tempest]

1. This is what the EU proposed last year and Bush rejected

Bush insisted that the troops be trained inside Iraq.

Is Bush backing down?