ISTANBUL, Turkey — Standing at the literal and metaphorical bridge between Europe and Asia, President Bush made an impassioned appeal Tuesday to Islamic nations to discard the past and embrace his vision of a democratic and pluralistic Middle East.
Against the backdrop of the Bosporus Bridge, which links the Asian and European sides of this ancient capital, Bush held up Turkey as an example of a secular and democratic Muslim state, one he said he hoped Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations would emulate.
"This land has always been important for its geography, here at the meeting place of Europe, Asia and the Middle East," Bush said. "Now Turkey has assumed even greater historical importance, because of your character as a nation. Turkey is a strong, secular democracy, a majority Muslim society ... a model to others."
Bush's speech at the end of the NATO summit here culminated a diplomatic mission to heal rifts with allies over his decision to invade and occupy Iraq. Bush arrived back in Washington on Tuesday night.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization agreed to help train Iraq's armed forces, but France and Germany, which opposed the invasion, disagreed on the amount of support.
Both nations said they would not send military instructors to Iraq and that they would rather train officers outside that country. French President Jacques Chirac said a NATO presence in Iraq would be misunderstood by Iraqis.
Alliance leaders did agree to increase the number of its peacekeepers in Afghanistan and to end their Bosnia-Herzegovina peacekeeping mission by the end of this year.
Bush and his aides have also had limited success in persuading critics, especially those in the Muslim world, to join in his vision of using Iraq as a beachhead to transform the Middle East.
Because of violence and protests, Bush's visit -- his last expected major foreign tour before November's election -- was marked by extraordinary security measures. Shortly before the speech, an explosion aboard a Turkish Airlines plane injured three cleaners at the airport from which Bush's plane was to depart.
Police said one of the workers picked up a wallet and lost a finger when plastic explosives went off. The other two workers were slightly hurt.
A central theme of Bush's meetings with Turkish, European Union and NATO leaders was that democracy and Islam were not incompatible.
