World Leaders

For President Bush, his family and his top aides, the most generous foreign leader last year was Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. The State Department's annual tally of gifts to administration officials shows Abdullah gave them $127,600 in jewelry and other presents, including a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set for Laura Bush that was valued at $95,500. The Saudi royal family's gifts dwarfed those of other world leaders, according to the tally, and easily eclipsed Abdullah's $55,020 in gifts in 2002.

Tens of thousands of Americans and foreign visitors from all walks of life filed past the casket of Ronald Reagan yesterday, pausing to pay their respects to the nation's 40th president. World leaders including his long-ago Soviet rival Mikhail S. Gorbachev were among those who gazed upon his casket in hushed contemplation in the Capitol Rotunda. President Bush, back from his meeting with world leaders in Georgia, briefly paid respects in advance of his eulogy at the national funeral today at Washington National Cathedral.

Stanley Crouch is a columnist for the New York Daily News When gangsters such as Saddam Hussein are captured, the question of justice is raised as high as it can ever be. I began thinking about this when Pol Pot was arrested in Cambodia. Looking at that little man, I began to wonder what should be done with someone who had ordered the murder of millions. Next to the immeasurable pain and grief such butchers bring into the world, the ancient rule of an eye for an eye seems inadequate.

Colin Powell always has been known as a good soldier. His victory yesterday at the United Nations Security Council came because this soldier just wouldn't stop fighting. The secretary of state deserves applause after winning unanimous Security Council approval - including, amazingly, from chronically troublesome Syria - for a resolution backing the American-led reconstruction of Iraq. To get that vote, he doggedly used a tool the Bush administration had driven a tank over time and again - diplomacy.

While endorsing plans to fight AIDS, poverty and terrorism, G8 members ended their summit in Evian, France, yesterday with an emphasis on the equally challenging goal of global unity. Even President Bush and French rival Jacques Chirac staged a photo opportunity on a veranda overlooking Lake Geneva, telling the world their very public dispute over Iraq was behind them. "I know there are a lot of people in both our countries wondering whether or not we could actually sit down and have a comfortable conversation," Bush said.

World leaders will seek ways to revive the sluggish global economy and halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction today at a summit marked by lingering tension between the United States and France. Before leaving the Group of Eight summit a day early for Middle East peace talks, President Bush will meet privately with French President Jacques Chirac, his severest critic over the invasion of Iraq in March. Chirac highlighted their continuing differences yesterday by arguing that the vast majority of people shared his vision of a "multipolar world," in which the United States would not be the sole dominant power.

President Bush has clearly stated that our goal in invading Iraq is the liberation of the Iraqi people. However, it seems that the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney have plans that may jeopardize this goal and further alienate our allies. While world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and many congressional leaders are calling for U.N. administration of postwar Iraq, the Pentagon, Rumsfeld and Cheney want the process to be controlled solely by the United States.

From France to Indonesia to Russia, in the offices of national leaders and in the streets, a loud international chorus yesterday condemned the attack on Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac said he regretted an action that started without U.N. support and predicted it would have serious consequences. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin said the attack was being carried out "against world public opinion, against the principles and norms of international law. " Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri denounced the attack, and China called it a violation of the U.N. charter.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made an impassioned appeal yesterday for international support should the Bush administration conclude it must go to war against Iraq. The international community is fast approaching the point "where we have to take that next step" and confront Iraq with force, Powell said. "And history will judge us as to whether or not we have the strength, the fortitude, the willingness to take that next step," he said. Powell spoke at the World Economic Forum, a gathering of business tycoons, government leaders and other notables, on the eve of the U.N. weapons inspectors' report on Iraq's compliance with demands that it relinquish weapons of mass destruction.

The United States is losing the global battle for hearts and minds on its anti-terror war, if you judge from the reactions of top European, Asian, Arab and Latin American business leaders attending the annual World Economic Forum in this mountain resort. Last year, when the forum was temporarily relocated to New York City, the conferees poured out an emotional tide of support for America's anti-terror war. The tide has ebbed. At closed sessions here, George W. Bush's popularity rating sometimes seems lower than Saddam's.