President George W. Bush on Wednesday showed a new willingness to consider a European-led diplomatic approach to ending Iran's nuclear threat, underlining one of the chief messages of his trip to Europe that he has no appetite for another war.

In spite of remaining differences between Mr Bush and Gerhard Schröder, the German chancellor, Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser, said that “there has been a convergence” as a result of their discussions in Mainz on Wednesday. Mr Bush was now going to “go back [home] and think about” the European strategy, Mr Hadley said.