G8: Bush-Blair chemistry displayed for last time

Heiligendamm (Germany), June 7: US President George W Bush bid a reluctant farewell to his close friend and ally Tony Blair today as the two met at the British Prime Minister's final G8 summit. ''This is the last meeting I will have had with him as Prime Minister. It's a nostalgic moment for me,'' Bush told reporters, standing beside Blair after bilateral talks at the gathering of the world's top powers in Germany.

''I'm sorry it's come to be, but that's what happens in life. We'll move on,'' he added.

Blair is set to stand down on June 27 after a decade in office, the final years of which have been marked by a close alliance with Bush that has angered many in his Labour Party.

Blair's support for the US-led Iraq war has tarnished his legacy and, in part, forced him to leave office sooner than he had hoped. His long-standing finance minister Gordon Brown will succeed him.

Bush and Blair have enjoyed an extraordinary personal chemistry, frequently joking with each other.

At last year's G8 summit in Russia, Bush was overheard greeting his ally with a matey ''Yo Blair!''.

They have been closely bound by the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan and the campaign in Iraq as well as by more personal issues like a deep-rooted faith.

Bush, speaking in front of the Kempinski Grand Hotel at the Baltic coastal resort of Heiligendamm, recalled the two leaders' news conference in Washington last month - their final meeting on US soil.

There, they talked about ''how our efforts are going to lead to peace and to a better world for a lot of people,'' Bush said.

Blair, asked later if he was equally as sad as Bush, said he was too enmeshed in the details of tackling climate change at the G8 to think about his imminent departure.

''To be absolutely frank, I'm so into the difference between various linking systems of emissions trading that I haven't the time to feel nostalgic or anything else,'' Blair said.

REUTERS

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