U.S. President George W. Bush and European Union leaders emphasized unity on pressuring Iran to give up nuclear ambitions and China to lower trade barriers at a summit on Monday overshadowed by a crisis within the EU. Bush met at the White House with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso; Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the rotating European Council; and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Their talks came against a backdrop of a crisis in the European Union over its failure to agree on a long-term budget and to ratify a constitution to give the world's biggest trading bloc greater solidarity, according to Reuters. The EU leaders told Bush that despite the disarray, the bloc's governing apparatus is functioning and "not at its knees," Juncker said at a joint news conference with Bush, Barroso and Solana. "It's no surprise that in this process some problems may occur, but the European Union is there," Barroso added. "We are on business. We are deciding. We are taking decisions every day internally and externally, and we are committed to this very close relation with the United States." --More 2332 Local Time 2032 GMT
