... In large part because of the images of millions of Iraqis voting in defiance of insurgents, Condoleezza Rice's debut in Europe as secretary of state is being greeted with striking warmth and a rush of expectations about the healing of transatlantic ties.

"Irrespective of what one thought about the military intervention in Iraq in the first place," Germany is "strongly ready. . . to help Iraq to get toward this stable and hopefully democratic development," Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said at a news conference with Rice in Berlin on Friday.

In an editorial Saturday, the influential Warsaw newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza said that "by going to the polling stations in such large numbers, the Iraqi people helped settle the dispute between the United States and Europe over whether democracy can be reconciled with Islam. Thanks to them, the 'de-freezing' of transatlantic relations could happen earlier than even optimists expected."

Poland committed troops to the 2003 invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein, but the war has been highly unpopular among Poles, with public opinion polls showing that about 75 percent of those surveyed now oppose the war and want troops to come home.

Because of domestic pressure, the Polish government had earlier announced that as many as 800 of its 2,400 troops in Iraq would be pulled out after the election, with the rest coming home by year's end. But after talks with Rice, Adam Rotfeld, the Polish foreign minister, said Saturday that the Iraqi election had "totally changed our optics on Iraq."

"In the year 2005, we are in a completely different place than we were in the years 2004 and 2003," Rotfeld said at a joint news conference with Rice. U.S. and Polish officials continue to discuss the future status of the Polish troops in Iraq...