US President George W. Bush will start his European trip on Sunday to mend fences with the European allies and is expected to conclude his visit on Feb. 24.

"On Sunday, President and Mrs. Bush will depart for Europe, with stops in Belgium, Germany and the Slovak Republic," US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said at a White House briefing.

"The trip provides a great opportunity for the president to meet with some of America's oldest and closest friends and allies. It's also an opportunity, as the president said this morning, to affirm the importance of the transatlantic link for dealing with the challenges that America and Europe both face," Hadley said.

Hadley said Bush and European leaders will discuss how to meet the challenges such as finding new ways to support the new governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, advancing an Israel-Palestinian settlement, and "spreading freedom and democracy to parts of the world that have known too little of both."

This will be the first trip to Europe after Bush won his re-election. Following his re-election, Bush has repeatedly said he will take steps to repair the transatlantic alliance badly strained by the Iraq war.

During the trip, Bush will meet French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russia President Vladimir Putin who strongly opposed the Iraq war in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2005)