Bush mends fences in Mexico
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President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin pose following a breakfast meeting Tuesday.
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MONTERREY, Mexico (CNN) -- President Bush, meeting Tuesday for the first time with new Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, helped ease tension between the countries by allowing Canada into the next round of bidding on $18.6 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts.
Bush also vowed close coordination between the United States and Canada as they deal with mad cow disease.
The meetings came on the second day of the Summit of the Americas, what has amounted to a kind of fence-mending visit for Bush and the United States' chief allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Relations between the United States and Canada and Mexico have been strained since the United States' two neighbors opposed the war in Iraq in 2003.
Bush met Monday with Mexican President Vicente Fox, who voiced his support for a Bush proposal to grant temporary worker status to illegal immigrants.
In December, the Bush administration said countries that opposed the war in Iraq would not be able to bid on contracts to rebuild Iraq. (Full story)
Martin and leaders of France, Germany and Russia objected to the policy. Martin, at the time, said he found the policy "really very difficult to fathom."
Tuesday, Bush said Canada has now proven a "strong supporter of the Madrid conference and wants Iraq to be free."
The Madrid conference was an international gathering aimed at raising money for Iraq's reconstruction. The United States has said it will take more than $55 billion over the next four years to help reconstruct Iraq. Canada pledged $300 million. Aside from the United States, Japan is the largest donor, offering a $5 billion package -- $1.5 billion in grants for 2004 and $3.5 billion in loans from 2005 to 2007.
Martin called Tuesday's development proof of how the two countries "can work together."
The Pentagon said in December it would limit contracts for rebuilding Iraq to the 63 countries that supported the war with Iraq. The Pentagon plans to award contracts totaling $18.6 billion to upgrade and rebuilt Iraq's electrical system, utilities, military courts, borders, housing health, transportation, communication and oil infrastructure, according to the Defense Department.
Last week, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the first $5 billion in contracts would go to the 26 countries on the Pentagon's list, but said other countries might be eligible in later rounds. So far, the United States has awarded a $1.8 billion Iraq reconstruction contract to Bechtel Corp. in California.
Rice hinted last week that the United States might open the bidding to other countries.
"As further contracts are let, as further funds are released over the next several months, then we can review in some detail the circumstances, the changed circumstances for different countries," Rice said.
Bush also said Tuesday the United States and Canada would work closely to ease consumer concern about mad cow disease. U.S. fears grew after a diseased cow was found in Washington state in December. (Full story) U.S. investigators say the cow was among a herd of animals that entered the United States from Canada in 2001.
"The best way to make sure that we're able to satisfy the consumers in both our countries, as well as around the world, is there ought to be very close coordination on regulation, on information and on the science," Bush said.
Monday, Fox called Bush's proposal to grant temporary guest worker status to illegal immigrants in the United States "an important step forward."
"What we want is the plan presented by President Bush," Fox said in a news conference Monday at the summit.
"We hope the plan has a happy ending through the political process that must be followed in the United States."
Last week, Bush proposed changing U.S. immigration laws to allow illegal immigrants to obtain legal status as temporary workers in jobs U.S. employers were unable to fill with Americans.
The plan would allow undocumented workers to obtain three-year temporary visas, renewable once. After those visas expire, the workers could apply for U.S. citizenship but would not be given preferential treatment over others, the Bush administration said.
Fox, who has called for blanket amnesty of illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States, said the proposal would be "a very important step forward for many Mexican workers in the United States."
Bush has said he did not want to reward illegal behavior by granting such amnesty.
