To: Srexley who wrote (585953 ) 6/28/2004 2:22:55 PM From: tejek Respond to of 769670 <font color=brown> Here's some more honesty.......Bush wants to win so bad he continues to lie: Oops.........doesn't Blair know Bush has an election to win?!! <font color=black> ******************************************************* Blair disputes Bush over Iraq Mon 28 June, 2004 18:10 By Adam Entous ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair says the Western rift over Iraq is not over, disputing a central message of U.S. President George W. Bush's fence-mending mission to Europe. "There's no point in us standing here and saying, 'You know, all the previous disagreements have disappeared.' They haven't," Blair said with Bush at his side on Monday. Blair's comments directly contradicted Bush's after a summit with European Union leaders in Ireland last weekend."The bitter differences of the war are over," Bush had confidently declared. Many European states, including France and Germany, opposed last year's invasion of Iraq. Bush and Blair, the two closest allies in the war in Iraq, appeared together on the sidelines of a NATO summit to celebrate the surprise early handover of power from the U.S.-led coalition to the Iraqi interim government. Blair acknowledged that the United States and Britain have been unable to "overcome the disagreement there was (with opponents of the war) about whether the conflict was justified." "Our honest belief is that the world will be a safer place if we're able to make this work. And I don't know whether we convinced people of this or not," Blair said. French President Jacques Chirac underlined lingering tension on Monday by opposing a formal role for NATO inside Iraq just hours after the alliance agreed to help train the Baghdad government's security forces. WHAT PROGRESS? Blair said progress has been made in repairing strained ties, citing passage this month of a United Nations resolution and NATO's plans to help train Iraqi soldiers. "In that sense, I think, the international community has come together, and I welcome it," Blair said. Bush also appeared to back away from his upbeat assessment in Ireland, telling reporters in Istanbul: "My sense is that there's a hope that we succeed, with all the nations sitting around the table. Everyone understands the stakes." Bush's second trip this month to Europe has been dogged from the start by protests. In Ireland, they delayed his farewell press conference by 30 minutes while during Monday's opening day of the NATO summit protesters hurling paving stones and petrol bombs clashed with riot police in Istanbul leaving around 30 people injured. The violence was well away from the venue for the two-day gathering, which is ringed by a tight security cordon. In private talks and in a joint U.S.-EU statement, European leaders also made clear their disquiet over both the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the U.S. military abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail.Bush has played down the importance of public opinion abroad. When asked on Saturday about his poor standing in Europe, Bush shot back that the polls he most cared about were the ones to pick a U.S. president in November. reuters.co.uk