US President George Bush last night took personal thanks to Poland for standing up as a wartime ally in Iraq.
But he made no effort to hide a grudge toward France and Germany for opposing the campaign against Saddam Hussein.
However, the US administration insisted it would look to the future despite months of extraordinary tensions.
"It's not to say that we didn't have a bad run with some of our closest friends and allies and partners," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Air Force One as Bush flew to Europe today. "But you move on. Politics and diplomacy is about moving on."
Krakow in southern Poland was the first stop on a week-long tour also taking Bush to Russia for the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg and to Evian, France, for the annual G8 summit of industrialised nations. Bush will cut short his stay in France to make his first visit to the Middle East for meetings promoting an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
The trip's opening days underscore deep tensions over the Iraq war, in which French President Jacques Chirac undercut US efforts to win a war resolution from the UN General Assembly and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder campaigned for re-election on an anti-war platform.
Bush has not even talked with Schroeder, the leader of western Europe's largest nation, since November.
Bush and his wife Laura smiled and waved as they stepped off their plane last night, welcomed by diplomats and an honour guard of Polish troops wearing white feather hats and dark green capes.