Bush aides insist Maliki cancellation not a snub

AMMAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) To make it to Jordan for crisis talks on Iraq, President George W Bush left a NATO summit in Latvia right after lunch, tightening up an already packed schedule in the Baltics.

But as he flew to Amman for a three-way meeting yesterday at King Abdullah's palace to include the Jordanian monarch and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Bush was informed Maliki wouldn't be there.

Two days of meetings between Bush and Maliki were shrunk to one and Bush was to dine alone with Abdullah and then meet the Iraqi prime minister the next morning for breakfast.

An entourage of reporters travelling with Bush did not learn of the change until they arrived at Abdullah's palace that evening and the White House found itself besieged by questions.

Was Bush offended? Did he see it as a snub? Was it a sign of tension between two leaders facing strong pressures over the escalating bloodshed in Iraq? ''Absolutely not,'' insisted White House counselor Dan Bartlett who played down the yesterday visit as merely a social call that turned out to be unnecessary.

But US officials were initially at a loss to explain precisely who decided to cancel the meeting or to say when Bush found out.

US, Jordanian and Iraqi officials have since filled in some gaps, but much about the incident is still cloaked in mystery.

''We may never find out,'' said Joost Hiltermann, an analyst at the Amman office of the International Crisis Group.

PRESSURE TO BOYCOTT MEETING But Hiltermann was among many who suspected that, despite the denials, the decision to shelve the evening talks was indeed a snub by Maliki in reaction to the surfacing of a White House memo critical of the Iraqi prime minister.

''Of course they're going to deny it,'' Hiltermann said.

The memo to Bush from White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, reported by The New York Times, said the Iraqi leader might have good intentions about curbing violence but was not effective.

The memo said, ''the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into actions.'' Maliki had already faced intense pressure in Iraq from powerful Shi-ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who had urged him to boycott the meeting with Bush.

Offering an alternative explanation to the idea that the cancellation was due to the memo, sources in the Iraqi delegation said Maliki had wanted to keep the discussions on Iraq separate from any wider talks involving third parties -- a reference to King Abdullah.

Jordanian officials said the king had been keen to lobby Bush for progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Some Iraqi Shi'ite leaders do not see the king as an unbiased intermediary on Iraq. Abdullah has warned in the past of growing Iranian influence since the 2003 invasion and the emergence of a ''Shi'ite crescent'' stretching across the region.

If Bush viewed the schedule change as a diplomatic slight, he did not show it. At a news conference today, he praised Maliki as courageous and the ''right guy'' to lead Iraq.

As for Maliki, he told reporters the yesterday meeting was never part of the schedule. ''Therefore there was no problem,'' he said.

REUTERS PB RN2127