10th anniversary of Central European Initiative

(22 May 2003) 1. Polish plane taxiing 2. Polish delegates disembarking 3. Pull out from Italian plane 4. Delegates being greeted 5. Motorcade 6. Delegate being greeted from plane 7. Delegate getting into car 8. Cars driving away from airport 9. Troops on parade 10. Flags 11. Delegates inspecting troops 12. Cutaway, crowd 13. Troops 14. Various, delegates on red carpet 15. Delegates posing for 'family photo' 16. Delegates around table 17. Cutaway, cameras 18. Various, delegates facing press STORYLINE: Central European leaders gathered in Salzburg on Thursday for the tenth anniversary meeting of Central European Initiative (CEI) presidents. Seventeen European presidents who gathered for the summit declared relations with Washington to be of "utmost importance," in what appears to be a further sign that European countries which opposed the war against Iraq are putting that crisis behind them. "Given today's situation in the world, we agreed that the close cooperation between Europe and the United States is of utmost importance," said Austrian President Thomas Klestil following a closed-door meeting with 16 of his counterparts, including Germany's Johannes Rau. Germany strongly opposed the Iraq war, a move which angered the US government and marked the lowest point in relations between the allies since the end of World War II. Most of the other leaders present represent countries which supported the strong US stance on Iraq, including Italy, Romania and Poland. The presidents, who have a mainly ceremonial function and do not formulate national policy, met Thursday in the historic city of Salzburg for the first day of a two-day summit on the future of European Union enlargement. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...