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Analysis: West split on Iraq

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has signalled his reluctance to attack Iraq

By CNN European Political Editor Robin Oakley

LONDON, England (CNN) -- President George W. Bush keeps saying that mopping up terrorism doesn't stop with finding Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. So who's next in the White House sights?

"If they fund terrorists, they're terrorists. If they house terrorists they're terrorists. I can't make it any more clearly to nations around the world. If they develop weapons of mass destruction to terrorise nations, they will be held accountable," Bush said.

"As for Mr. Saddam Hussein, he needs to let inspectors back in his country to show he is not developing weapons of mass destruction."

From Robin Oakley More analysis by CNN's European Political Editor

But while European allies like German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have backed the allied effort in Afghanistan, they want limits on future action.

"We should be particularly careful about a discussion about new targets in the Middle East. More could blow up in our faces than any of us realise," Schroeder says.

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He meant: Count me out of any attacks on Iraq.

And that posed a problem when British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac met the press during a Franco-British summit in London on Thursday.

What did they think, they were asked, about Bush's seeming switch of attention to Iraq?

Blair took refuge in a wait-and-see non-answer.

"That military action is, at the moment, focussed on Afghanistan. What is essential is that we complete it. We have to pursue both the political and humanitarian dimensions too. Other issues ... that can be discussed and deliberated upon on in a different phase," Blair said.

Chirac, perhaps feeling that awkward questions were out of order on his 69th birthday, simply stared in silence.

But British Defence Minister Geoff Hoon had already spelled out the British position to Parliament.

"I have not seen any evidence to link Iraq directly with al Qaeda," Hoon said.

That was a note of caution to Washington. But he did make it plain to MPs that Britain, unlike others, might back action in countries like Yemen or Somalia.

"In a state with very little ability to control what happens within its own borders, then certainly a degree of military response might be appropriate," he said.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the alliance is coming apart. Blair and Chirac have again pledged their fervent support for U.S. aims against terrorism.

But there were always bound to be tensions about specific actions, and they are starting to show.