US President George Bush arrived in Vienna Tuesday night for talks with leaders of the European Union (EU) which will focus on cooperation in energy, trade, Iran and other global issues but also highlight major divide between the two sides over issues like the US prison in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

Bush, his wife Laura and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were greeted at the airport in the Austrian capital by Austria's chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.

During the one-day summit, Bush will be told by his European counterparts to take measures on the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay which Brussels sees as a source of grave human rights violations and repeatedly urged its closure.

"We can't have an area where law does not apply," Schuessel told the European Parliament in Brussels earlier on Tuesday. There are about 460 inmates at the Guantanamo Bay camp and most have been held there as "enemy combatants" since early 2002 without charge or access to a lawyer.

Schuessel also made clear that he will raise the issue of secret captures and transfers of people by the US Central Intelligence Agency in Europe.

"We cannot allow people simply to be abducted in this way and to go to secret detention centers. This needs to be stated," he said.

The Doha round of world trade talks and situation in the Middle East will also feature at the annual trans-Atlantic event, so do climate change and US restrictions on travel visas for citizens from certain EU countries.

Members of the World Trade Organization are struggling to meet a year-end deadline for completion of the current round of trade talks. The EU and the US have been blaming each other for not making enough concessions -- mainly on farm subsidies -- and therefore should take the main responsibility for the current deadlock in talks.

The two sides will seek to strengthen their collaboration on energy security and to set tighter goals for energy efficiency in the face of soaring oil prices. They will also discuss their roles in the global effort to address climate change and to promote sustainable development.

Bush will hold talks on Wednesday with Schuessel, European Commission President Jose Barroso and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. The summit will conclude with a declaration covering a whole range of issues from diplomacy to education.

Bush will leave Vienna for Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday afternoon, where he will take part in ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian uprising.

Source: Xinhua