Biden vows break with Bush era foreign policy

By Ross Colvin and Noah Barkin

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden promised a sharp break from the go-it-alone policies of the Bush era in a major speech on Saturday, saying it was time to "reset" Washington's ties with Russia and talk to Iran.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, an annual gathering of leaders and defense experts, Biden said the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama was determined to "set a new tone" in Washington and with its allies.

In the wide-ranging 25-minute address, Biden focused on relations with Moscow, badly strained by Russia's brief war last year with Georgia and U.S. plans to put a missile shield in central Europe.

"The last few years have seen a dangerous drift in relations between Russia and the members of our Alliance," Biden said in the first major foreign policy speech by the new administration.

"It's time, to paraphrase President Obama, to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should work together," he said.

Biden conceded that Washington and Moscow would not agree on everything, citing the Georgia conflict and referring to Russia's resistance to its neighbors joining NATO.

"We will not recognize any nation having a sphere of influence. It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances," Biden said. "But the United States and Russia can disagree and still work together where our interests coincide and they coincide in many places."

In the audience as Biden spoke were the leaders of Germany and France as well as the deputy prime minister of Russia -- all countries that clashed with former President George W. Bush over his invasion of Iraq six years ago.

At this same conference in 2003, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer stared down Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, telling him he was "not convinced" by the U.S. case for war.

LESS TENSE

The atmosphere this year has been far less tense.

European countries broadly welcomed Obama's election and Biden's presence at a conference normally attended by the U.S. defense secretary sent an important signal to Europe that the Obama administration was keen to rebuild relations.

"We will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America," Biden said.

In a jibe at the policies of Bush, he vowed to end torture, close the Guantanamo military prison in Cuba and advance democracy "not through its imposition by force from the outside, but by working with moderates" in foreign governments.

Biden urged a united effort by the international community to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program, which the West believes is a cover to build an atomic bomb and Tehran insists is for the peaceful generation of electricity.