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 US President George W. 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.

"It will consist of integrated training ... to be given to a representative group of senior officials, mainly in the judiciary, police and penitentiary sectors," according to a communique translated from French.

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

The split deepened subsequently over what Washington saw as the reluctance of anti-war countries to help it quell a violent insurgency. Paris and Berlin have pledged to help reconstruction through debt relief and training but will not set foot in Iraq.

The EU communique hailed the January 30 elections in Iraq as a step forward for democracy in the country and noted the EU had already agreed aid totalling over half a billion euros ($650 million) to Iraq.

Copyright Reuters, 2005