World gives mixed reaction to Bush speech

A world wary of war today cautiously welcomed calls by President George Bush for a tougher stance against Iraq, with some nations cheering the news and others worried Washington was leaning toward conflict.

European countries, largely skittish of an attack on Iraq, seemed encouraged by Bush’s announcement that Secretary of State Colin Powell would go before the UN Security Council next week to present the case against Iraq.

Swedish Prime Minister Georgian Persson called Bush’s State of the Union address "an important signal" adding that it showed the president was serious about having "the international community behind him."

German MP Gernot Erler, a senior member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats, warned that "the doorway through which disarmament could be achieved without war is getting narrower and narrower."