WASHINGTON - In the days before he assumed the presidency in 2001, George W. Bush liked to boast about the foreign policy "Dream Team" he had assembled.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were all "smart people" who would compensate for the former Texas governor's lack of international experience.

"General Powell's a strong figure, and Dick Cheney's no shrinking violet, nor Condi Rice," Bush said in December 2000. "I view the four as being able to complement each other."

But after nearly three years in office, Bush's dream team is beset by infighting, backstabbing and maneuvering on major foreign policy issues involving North Korea, Syria, Iran and postwar Iraq. The result has been paralysis, inconsistency and a zigzagging U.S. policy that confuses lawmakers on Capitol Hill and disturbs America's friends, allies and would-be partners.

It has hampered U.S. policies in the Middle East, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to rage, caused anxiety in Asia, where the administration's refusal to deal directly with North Korea has dismayed allies, and has seriously soured relations with some North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, say U.S. and foreign officials.

One U.S. diplomat, who asked not to be named, recalled what he said was Chinese exasperation over what they perceived as conflicting messages from the administration on North Korea. "We actually don't care what your point of view is. Just have one," he quoted his Chinese counterparts as saying.

White House officials declined to comment for this story. But a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that there have been severe rifts between members of Bush's foreign policy brain trust, but he insisted those disagreements are in the past.