BUDAPEST, Hungary — Despite weeks of intensive diplomacy, the United States on Tuesday failed to convince its NATO allies that the world faces a common threat of missile attacks--a significant setback for President Bush's most ambitious foreign policy goal.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had hoped to win agreement from the 19-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization on language affirming the existence of the threat as the basis for discussions of Bush's controversial plan to build a defense shield against strategic missiles.
Instead, a communique issued after a conference of NATO foreign ministers here mentions only the danger that missiles "can pose" and pointedly calls for further talks on the matter.
"We intend to pursue these consultations vigorously and welcome the United States' assurance that the views of allies will be taken into account as it considers its plans further," says the statement by the North Atlantic Council, the top NATO policymaking body.
The decision came just two weeks before Bush's inaugural European tour.
France and Germany were particularly opposed to a stronger joint declaration, according to European diplomats here. In an indication of the divisions, NATO delegations debated at length whether missiles "can pose" or "do pose" a threat, French envoys said. The Europeans prevailed.
Critics of missile defense called the NATO communique a serious blow.
"The U.S. failed in its goal of getting allies to agree on the gravity of the threat," said Stephen Young, Washington representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "That means they don't agree on the need for strategic missile defenses."
Powell tried to paper over the differences on the threat assessment.
"Some people see it as more immediate than others. Some people see it as greater than perhaps others. But I don't think there's any question that there's some sort of threat out there," Powell told a news conference.
The top U.S. diplomat said he had reassured colleagues that the Bush administration was engaged in "a real consultation--not a phony consultation." At the same time, Powell said he had made clear that the U.S. has "to move forward. We can see the threat."
In another sign of the impasse between long-standing allies on 21st century defense issues, the communique makes no mention of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which the U.S. wants to modify, bypass or scrap in order to build a missile defense system.
