Bush hosts Blair in farewell White House summit

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) US President George W Bush hosts outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a farewell summit today, with the two unlikely allies united to the end in their commitment to an Iraq war that is unpopular in both countries.

Blair's last scheduled visit to Washington before stepping down on June 27 underscores the price he has paid for embracing Bush, enlisting in the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and maintaining his support, for which critics at home dismissed him as ''Bush's poodle.'' While the war has damaged both leaders' standing, it is Blair who will leave office in mid-term, under pressure from within his own Labour Party to step aside before the next general election expected in 2009.

Blair, more popular in the United States than at home, was welcomed with open arms yesterday evening.

''You're a famous person,'' Bush said warmly to his guest as he escorted Blair into the White House lobby, where they posed for cameras before a private dinner.

After spending the night at the executive mansion in the same room where Winston Churchill slept during wartime visits decades ago, Blair will hold talks and a joint news conference with the president today.

Blair is expected to give priority to several of his pet issues, including narrowing US-European differences on global warming before next month's G8 summit of industrialized countries in Germany, trying to advance stalled world trade talks and alleviating poverty in Africa.

IRAQ But the overarching issue will be the Iraq war, which forged the Bush-Blair friendship and which many analysts believe will be decisive in determining their legacies.

The two are expected to show a unified front as they have for more than four years of combat in Iraq, where Britain provided the largest non-US contingent of troops for the invasion.

Bush administration officials also hope Blair will provide moral support to help fend off an opposition-led Congress demanding timetables for a US withdrawal.

And Bush will be looking for further assurances that Blair's presumed successor, finance minister Gordon Brown, will not lessen Britain's resolve in Iraq.

Brown has accepted that mistakes were made in Iraq but has ruled out an immediate pullout.

When Blair announced last Thursday he would step down next month, Bush said he would miss him but was ready to work with Brown, confident he ''understands the consequences of failure'' in Iraq.

But Brown is considered unlikely to form the kind of close personal bond Blair has with Bush.

The two have seemed an odd couple Bush the rich Texas Republican with strong right-wing views and Blair the head of a center-left party with socialist origins.

But Blair stood by Bush on Iraq when many other European leaders distanced themselves from the war or openly criticized it. He has insisted he has no regrets, even after finding Iraq did not have the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that were initially used to justify the war.

REUTERS DS DSR1245