Sea Island, Ga. ? Seeking to build on rare harmony with Europe after a U.N. vote, President Bush on Wednesday proposed a wider but unspecified role for NATO in post-occupation Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac immediately objected.

Apart from the dispute over NATO’s role, however, the once-bickering summit partners generally were in wide agreement a day after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution steering Iraq’s new government toward elections next year.

The eight powerful countries, including Russia and France, endorsed Bush’s idea of working toward limited political and economic reforms across the broader Middle East, but tied such an effort to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Bush also used the Group of Eight economic summit to introduce the new Iraqi president, Ghazi al-Yawer.

“I really never thought I’d be sitting next to an Iraqi president of a free country a year and half ago,” Bush said in a picture-taking session with al-Yawer after the two met privately. “And here you are.”

For his part, the Iraqi leader pledged to try to move his country “toward democracy. We are moving in steady steps toward it.”

“We’re determined to have a free, democratic, federal Iraq, a country that is a source of stability to the Middle East,” al-Yawer said.

Bush discussed the possible expanded role for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his top Iraq war ally.

“We believe NATO ought to be involved,” Bush said with Blair by his side. “We will work with our NATO friends to at least continue the role that now exists, and hopefully expand it somewhat.”

But Chirac told reporters that, while he is “very much open to debate and discussion” of Bush’s proposal, “I have reservations about this initiative.”

President Bush and new Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer shake hands during their bilateral meeting at the G-8 Summit on Sea Island, Ga. Several Middle Eastern leaders joined the summit on Wednesday.

“I do not believe it is NATO’s purpose to intervene in Iraq,” Chirac said. He said any NATO role could only be justified “if the sovereign Iraqi government were to ask for it.”

The new Iraqi president did not say whether he wanted NATO troops in his country, said a U.S. official knowledgeable about the discussions.

Administration officials said they were not discouraged by Chirac’s comments, and said there seemed to be much flexibility to find common ground between now and a NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey, at month’s end.

The summit on the barrier island has been largely peaceful, though protesters had some minor confrontations with police Wednesday. In Brunswick, the closest mainland city to the summit, a march by about 200 protesters led to minor shoving with riot police.

A few hours earlier, 20 people marched through downtown Savannah as several shouted at a line of 35 riot officers carrying shields and batons.