Blair and Bush plan new talks
Tony Blair is to meet US President George W Bush in Northern Ireland next week for talks on the Iraq war.
The meeting, announced by the White House, will take place on Monday or Tuesday next week.
The summit will also include discussions on the peace processes in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
It is reported that US Secretary of State Colin Powell will be travelling with President Bush.
A Downing Street spokesman said Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern would join the talks on Northern Ireland, as will the leadership of the three major pro-Good Friday Agreement parties, the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP.
The meetings, at an undisclosed location, come ahead of the fifth anniversary of the signing of the agreement.
The meeting is the third summit between Mr Bush and Mr Blair in recent weeks.
They met in the Azores ahead of the outbreak of war in Iraq, and Mr Blair travelled to the US for talks at Camp David last week.
Our troops will not stay a day longer than necessary
Tony Blair
A Downing Street spokesman said: "They found the meetings in the Azores and Camp David very helpful in the development of our strategy on the military, diplomatic and humanitarian fronts."
One of the summit's aims will be to kickstart the Northern Ireland peace process, with Mr Blair and Mr Ahern due to set out new proposals for the implementation of the Good Friday agreement.
The Downing Street spokesman said: "It is an important week in the Northern Ireland peace process.
"It will be useful to get the US President's support for our efforts to encourage the leaders to the acts of completion the prime minister has outlined."
'Move forward'
A White House spokesman said: "The president's going to get a first-hand insight and update on the incredible progress being made on the Northern Ireland peace process as well as discuss other efforts in the world to bring peace and security to the Middle East."
On the Middle East, Downing Street spokesman said Mr Bush and Mr Blair would examine "how best to move forward the Middle East peace process".
He added: "The president and the prime minister have discussed Northern Ireland on several occasions.
In the end the question will be: is the Iraq of the future going to be a better country than the Iraq under Saddam? And I believe it will be - and our commitment is to make sure it is
Tony Blair
"It is an example of how peace can be taken forward in seemingly impossible situations. We want that spirit applied to the Middle East peace process."
News of the meeting came as Mr Blair took part in a series of media interviews aimed at winning "hearts and minds" in Iraq.
It was also announced that thousands of letters from the prime minister are to be handed to Iraqis as part of efforts to portray the coalition as liberators.
Downing Street says 60,000 copies of the letter, which will include a photo of the prime minister, will be printed each day and delivered by troops.
Mr Blair also met a group of Iraqi exiles at Number 10 on Friday.
He later told the BBC's Arabic service that coalition forces would leave Iraq as soon as possible - should they succeed in toppling Saddam Hussein - to make way for an Iraqi-led government.
Mr Blair said the coalition had been blamed for deaths it had not caused in Iraq, such as claims it had bombed a Baghdad street market in the early days of the war.
Trying to quell over Arab and Muslim concerns, Mr Blair said he realised there was cynicism about promises to restart the Middle East peace process.
But he urged people to be open minded, pointing to America's promise to publish the roadmap to create a Palestinian state by 2005.
In the wake of recent comments from US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he also stressed he knew of "absolutely no plans" to take military action against Iran and Syria.
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Published: 2003/04/04 18:58:50 |
