LONDON — A London couple has devoted a Web site to him. A German magazine dubbed him the "American Idol," while other European publications have compared him to John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

And in another sign of just how smitten Europe is with Barack Obama, politicians in Italy and Germany have even stolen his campaign slogan, "Yes, we can!"

AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski (ENLARGE)

David Knutsont, a campaigner for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, distributes postcards announcing Obama's public speech, in Berlin. Obama also is scheduled to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

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If Americans think Obama has stirred passions in the United States, they should look to Europe, where it is expected that the presumptive Democratic nominee will be greeted as a rock star when he arrives in Berlin on Thursday.

After years of strained relations with the Bush administration over issues including the war in Iraq and global warming, many Europeans see Obama as an alternative who offers an opportunity for better relations.

"Generally, I think Europeans are attracted by Obama's freshness and the fact he is not as obviously rooted in the Washington establishment as his opponent or many previous presidents," said Trevor McCrisken, associate professor of U.S. politics and international studies at Warwick University in Britain.

Obama will hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday before meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Friday. On Saturday, Obama will visit British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London.

Obama's trip, which included a tour of the Middle East, is designed to boost the candidate's foreign policy credentials. Republican John McCain has derided it as being akin to holding a political rally abroad.

The McCain campaign said the leg of the trip to the Middle East has only underscored Obama's lack of foreign policy experience when contrasted with McCain's long career. McCain made a similar trip to the Middle East and Europe in March and has regularly visited Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

But especially in Europe, his visit did not attract the attention Obama is receiving. An opinion poll published last week in the Bild newspaper found 72 percent of Germans would vote for Obama over McCain in the Nov. 4 election — if they could.

Opinion polls in other European countries also reveal sky-high approval ratings.

"His election will forever remove any perceived limits felt by many black or mixed children living in Europe," said Brian Whittaker of Birmingham, England, who with his wife Candy created a Web site for "British believers in Barack Obama for U.S. president."

The biracial couple, who have three children, also sell T-shirts that say: "I have a (Obama) Dream."

But some analysts have warned that Europeans who have fallen in love with the Illinois senator may not like what they hear this week.

Karen Donfried, executive vice president of the German Marshall Fund in Washington, said Obama likely would ask Europe to take on greater responsibility in world affairs.

"And it's not obvious that Europeans actually want to take on greater responsibility, so it will be interesting to see Europeans' reaction to this message," she said.

The most anticipated moment of the European visit will be Obama's speech Thursday at the Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten Park that Europe's news media are already comparing to Kennedy's celebrated "Ich bin ein Berliner" address in 1963.

The magazine Der Spiegel said this week that Germans will hail Obama "as a magician with the ability to transform a gloomy world into a brighter place. Never before has there been so much excitement in Germany" over the visit of a U.S. presidential candidate.

Political analysts say part of Obama's appeal is an approach to world affairs that seems more collegial.

"Without truly realizing it, they love him because he represents a weaker America — an America more willing to listen to European hand-wringing, less prone to bullying, less determined to fight international terrorism, less inclined to topple brutal dictators, and overall less likely to hold a mirror to European hypocrisy and cynicism," said Patrick Keller, coordinator of foreign and security policy at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin.

Kathleen Burk, an expert on transatlantic relations at University College London, said Europeans favor Obama because he's emphasized that the United States should work with its allies, a stance that seems to be a complete reversal of George W. Bush's unilateral approach.

"And some commentators appear to believe that if Obama becomes president, it will lance the boil," she said.