Bush to discuss Iraq report with close ally Blair

Washington, Dec 7: President George W Bush and close ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair will consider the future course in Iraq a day after a report said the current US military and diplomatic strategy was not working.

Blair has been under fire at home for his staunch support of Washington, while US voters were widely seen as repudiating Bush's approach in the November 7 elections in which his Republican Party lost control of the US Congress.

The British leader's visit to the White House today comes as the Iraq Study Group advised Bush to begin withdrawing US combat forces from the violence-wracked country and to launch a diplomatic push that would include Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria.

''We do not recommend a stay-the-course solution,'' said former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican who co-chaired the bipartisan commission with former Democratic Rep Lee Hamilton.

''In our opinion, that is no longer viable.'' Like the panel, Blair is expected to urge Bush to embrace a wider West Asia peace policy to help resolve the Iraq crisis in what White House spokesman Tony Snow predicted would be a ''very freewheeling'' conversation.

''And so I would be loath to make any predictions. But I'm certain that this report is going to come up, and I'm certain that some of the recommendations will come up,'' he said.

When the 10-member group spoke with Blair last month, the prime minister was wrestling with similar issues to what the panel was considering.

''He (Blair) was dealing in many ways with precisely the same questions we were and with pretty much the same answers,'' said Lawrence Eagleburger, a secretary of state under former President George Bush, the current president's father.

Leon Panetta, White House chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, said Blair had suggested the panel push for its recommendations to begin to be put in place by as early as January.

''The United States government has never moved that fast on anything,'' Eagleburger said during a joint interview with reporters.

Bush and Blair also meet a day after the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as the new US defence secretary, replacing Donald Rumsfeld, who was a key architect of the war and a favorite target of its critics.

After holding talks with Bush at the White House and a joint news conference, Blair was scheduled to meet outgoing House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, and Rep Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who takes over the House leadership role when the new Congress convenes in January.

The crisis in Darfur, the war in Afghanistan and proposals for action against climate change were also likely to come up during Blair's talks.

Reuters

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