- HILLSBOROUGH, Northern Ireland
(Reuters) - U.S. and British leaders George W. Bush and Tony Blair were
briefed on their troops' overnight progress on Tuesday, before talks over
the future of Iraq at their summit in Northern Ireland.
-
- The allies, who met from Monday night at Hillsborough
Castle for their third war council in a month, received an early morning
update from generals in the field.
-
- While they took cheer from the U.S. and UK forces' thrusts
into Baghdad and Basra respectively, both men were said to be warning against
triumphalism or putting a time on the war's end.
-
- "It is dangerous to take victory for granted in
any way," was how Blair's spokesmen described their view.
-
- Seeking to quell a brewing international row, Bush and
Blair were to insist at a joint news conference later on Tuesday they welcome
a U.N. role in postwar Iraq -- but as an endorsement of an interim government,
not the controlling authority.
-
- That may not be enough to placate anti-war nations such
as France, Germany and Russia, or appease widespread international suspicion
of U.S. motives in Iraq.
-
- The debate over what the United Nations should do in
Iraq threatens to erupt into the same kind of bitter fight in the Security
Council that raged over authorizing military force.
-
- The United States is pushing ahead with plans for military
control in the immediate postwar period, followed by a phased-in Iraqi
interim authority with Americans in key advisory positions. A full Iraqi
government would be the third phase.
-
- MIDDLE EAST, NORTHERN IRELAND ALSO FIGURE
-
- Amid the high diplomacy and fast-moving events in Iraq,
Bush and Blair tried to strike a "reflective" note, aides said.
-
- They went for a walk on Monday night before dining at
the 18th century castle in a village outside the British-ruled province's
capital.
-
- As well as plotting Iraq's postwar future, the pair's
ambitious agenda for the two-day summit included the faltering peace processes
in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
-
- Blair has scored a political coup in bringing Bush across
the Atlantic to his patch. He wants to build on that by adding American
prestige to his efforts to return devolved home rule to Northern Ireland
as laid out in the 1998 Good Friday accord.
-
- London reluctantly took over direct rule again at the
end of last year as allegations of spying by Irish Republican Army guerrillas
proved the final straw in strained relations between the various Catholic
and Protestant political factions.
-
- Blair and Bush were also hoping to convince the Arab
world they were serious about Middle East peace, specifically via the publication
of Washington's long-awaited "road map" for settling the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
-
- On his first trip to the province, Bush got a rude welcome
from anti-war protesters. Hundreds drew as close as they could to Hillsborough
to chant slogans such as "Bush, Blair, CIA -- how many kids did you
kill today?" and hold a sit-down protest.
-
- "It's an illegal war led by two administrations
led by a cowboy and a poodle," said protester Abdul Aljibouri, an
Iraqi scientist living in Ireland for the last 14 years.
-
- Bush and Blair were to be joined by Irish Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern later on Tuesday and meet leaders of Northern Ireland's political
parties before heading home.
-
- Bush has displayed little personal interest in Northern
Ireland, unlike his predecessor Bill Clinton who was a key negotiator of
the Good Friday accord and drew cheering crowds to the streets on his past
trips to the province.
-
- -- Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Kevin Smith
|
