  We investigate the static potential in the confinement phase of the SU(2)
Higgs model on the lattice, where this model is expected to have properties
similar to QCD. We observe that Wilson loops are inadequate to determine the
potential at large distances, where the formation of two color-neutral mesons
is expected. Introducing smeared fields and a suitable matrix correlation
function, we are able to overcome this difficulty. We observe string breaking
at a distance $r_b \approx 1.8 r_0$, where the length scale $r_0$ has a value
$r_0 \approx 0.5 fm$ in QCD. The method presented here may lead the way towards
a treatment of string breaking in QCD.
