Putting their row over Iraq behind them, US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder vowed to rebuild a frayed partnership they said was vital to the transatlantic alliance.
Side by side yesterday at a news conference in Mainz, where Mr Bush's father once called on West Germany to become a "partner in leadership", the tone was warm although the talk of past division was frank.
"Europe is America's closest ally," Mr Bush said on the second stop of a three-nation European tour. "In order for us to have good relations with Europe, we have to have good relations with Germany."
The remarks were a flat contradiction of the go-it-alone approach that characterised Mr Bush's first term, when Washington labelled opponents of the war Germany and France "old Europe" and invaded Iraq with help from smaller European states.
Although Mr Bush's rhetoric has not been backed up by any major new transatlantic initiatives, it will be welcomed in Berlin and other European capitals as a sign the Iraq row is fading and a new, more balanced relationship is possible.
"No one is denying there were differences in the past. But that is the past," insisted Mr Schroeder, who angered the White House by tapping anti-Bush sentiment to win re-election in 2002.
Before heading to a spirited rally at a US base across the Rhine in Wiesbaden, Mr Bush made some of his most conciliatory remarks of a European trip which started in Brussels on Sunday and moves to Bratislava for today's meetings with another opponent of the Iraq war, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Among areas of cooperation that Mr Bush stressed were efforts to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.
He also thanked Germany for helping train Iraqi police and forgiving debts, and said he accepted Mr Schroeder's reluctance to send troops to the insurgency-riven country.
Mr Schroeder, too, highlighted the positive, praising a new commitment he perceived in Mr Bush's efforts to help resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Ahead of Mr Bush's visit, concerns were rife that ties would be further strained by US opposition to EU plans for a lifting of an arms embargo on China and divergent strategies to curb Iran's nuclear programme.
But comments in Brussels and Mainz seemed to suggest a softening of Washington's tone, if not a change in its stance.
Mr Bush continues to say he cannot rule out military options against Tehran, but he has repeatedly expressed a preference for diplomacy in recent days.
"Iran is not Iraq," Mr Bush said yesterday. "We just started the diplomatic efforts and I want to thank our friends for taking the lead. We will work with them to convince the mullahs that they need to give up their nuclear ambitions."
Britain, France and Germany are offering Tehran economic incentives in exchange for limitations on its nuclear programme, which Tehran denies has a military purpose. While endorsing those talks, Mr Bush has refused European requests to join them.
Although the German-American rift appears to be healing, demonstrators in Mainz were a reminder Mr Bush remains highly unpopular here.
Some 12,000 protesters - twice as many as predicted - marched outside the security zone, carrying posters reading "Bush Go Home" and "Warmonger".
Polls show many Germans do not trust Mr Bush, who told a Berlin audience in May 2002 he had "no war plans on my desk", 10 months before the Iraq invasion.
Tight security measures for Mr Bush's visit have also angered some citizens of this quiet city.
In one of Germany's biggest post-war security operations, police turned the regional capital into a fortress, with frogmen searching the Rhine for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers welded shut and thousands of local residents displaced.
The country has fonder memories of Mr Bush's father, who came to Mainz in 1989 and called for the Berlin Wall to be torn down, drawing repeated applause. It fell six months later.
The end of the Soviet threat, which helped make presidents like John F. Kennedy heroes in Germany, has left Germans feeling less grateful to the US.
Mr Bush touched on these Cold War ties in Wiesbaden, likening America's leading role in airlifting supplies to west Berliners during the 1948-49 Soviet blockade to the mission in Iraq.
"Some of you soldiers might have seen me before," Mr Bush joked with the troops, some of whom were in Iraq when he made a surprise 2003 Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad. "I was the guy serving the turkey."