President Bush said he and European Union leaders had a "very engaged and fruitful conversation" on Iraq, Iran, the Mideast, energy security, the Doha trade round, the fight against terrorism and other issues at the U.S.-EU summit in Vienna, Austria, on June 21.

Appearing in a post-summit press conference with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Bush thanked the EU for its support in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans. "I've always believed that when America and the EU work together we can accomplish big deeds. And this world needs us to work together because there's a lot of challenges."

The leaders together called on Iran to respond to the international community’s offer concerning its nuclear activities, warning that “time is limited,” and that its answer should come in “weeks, not months.”

“[I]t shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal,” the president said, and the Iranian government’s stated intention to respond to the package of incentives on August 22 “seems like an awful long time for a reasonable answer.” He repeated that the United States is willing to join France, Germany and the United Kingdom, collectively known as the EU-3, in their direct negotiations with Iran once Tehran verifiably suspends its uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. “I'm convinced that when they look and see that we're working very closely together, that they will see the seriousness of our intent to resolve this in a diplomatic and peaceful way,” he said.