Europe is trying to reach consensus on the Russia-Georgia crisis before an emergency summit meeting of the European Union on Sept. 1.

The EU countries agree that Russia overreacted to Georgia's assault on South Ossetia and that Moscow has not abided by the cease-fire agreement. But they disagree on what action to take.

Yet European officials believe that they have an important part to play because Moscow distrusts President Bush due to his strong support of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Europeans are split into two main camps, the New York Times points out. Countries like France, Germany and Belgium, dependent on Russia for oil, favor a less confrontational style. But countries of Central Europe, like Poland, advocate taking a tough line to show Moscow that aggression does not pay. They are backed by Britain, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Reporting from Paris, where the diplomats are meeting, Steven Erlanger writes that the countries sometimes called "old Europe" seek to "ease Russia out of its predicament and not create a long-term animosity with a country that has a strong energy, trade and cultural relationship with Europe."

That sentiment can go only so far, though. Russia is the aggressor in this case, declaring Georgia's breakaway regions eligible for independence and threatening the sovereignty of Georgia itself.

One method advocated by the French is to place European monitors and observers in the security zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Getting Russia to withdraw from the security zones would be a good idea.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy brokered the cease-fire, which calls for all parties to withdraw to their positions before the fighting began. Russian "peacekeepers" are allowed to patrol in the security zones, but not to establish set positions, which they have done.

But there is a lack of consensus among the EU's 27 nations. Said Charles Kupchan, professor of international affairs at Georgetown University: "The EU always has trouble speaking with a single voice. It will find consensus all the more difficult in this crisis. In Central Europe there's a sense that we told you so, Russia is again an aggressor state. And in Western Europe there is a much more complicated view of the war in Georgia and an unwillingness to jump to the conclusion that it's time to man the barricades and contain Russia."

But a divided European Union will accomplish nothing.