US President George W. Bush will conclude his three-day trip to Britain late on Friday after visiting his closest ally British Tony Blair's parliamentary constituency in northeastern England.
At the invitation of the British Queen Elizabeth II, Bush and his wife Laura Bush arrived here on Tuesday evening for a state visit that is full of pomp, pageantry and protests.
Bush last came to Britain in April, when he met with Blair in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for talks focusing on rebuilding Iraq, even as the US-led military campaign against the country was still going on.
This time, more than six months after Bush announced that major military campaign in Iraq was over, he came to London days following the announcement of a new Iraq strategy aimed at stepping up power transfer to the Iraqis.
The heart of Bush's engagement in London, overshadowed by fears of terror attacks and the rising anti-war spirit among the British public, came on Thursday when he met with Blair at Downing Street for talks, again, on Iraq.
Both Bush and Blair are grappling with the political fall-out of almost daily deadly guerrilla attacks on the coalition forces in Iraq, and their talks were expected to hammer out details of a new plan to transfer sovereignty in Baghdad on June 30 next year.
Amid speculation that the US administration was considering a U-turn on Iraq in terms of its desire to speed up the transfer of power to the Iraqi people, both Britain and the United States have said their determination and resolve to ensure a free and prosperous Iraq remain absolutely undiminished and they would handover power to the Iraqis as quickly as possible.
Blair and Bush further tamped their "special relationship" by agreeing that Britain and the United States would stand "side by side" to "get the job done" in Iraq.
In a joint declaration issued on Thursday, the two allies agreed the coalition should "ensure that the people of Iraq will prevail with the support of the new and strengthening Iraqi security forces" and they welcomed the Iraqi Governing Council's announcement of a timetable for the creation of a sovereign Iraqi Transitional Administration by the end of June 2004 and the council's commitment to ensuring the widest possible participation in the Transitional Assembly and constitutional process.
Claiming that Britain and the United States would honor their commitment to the reconstruction of Iraq, Blair and Bush said coalition's military participation in the multinational force in Iraq "would serve the Iraqi people until the Iraqis themselves were able to discharge full responsibility for their own security."
Blair and Bush, who launched the Iraqi war without the approval of the United Nations, also called on other nations to be involved in rebuilding Iraq "regardless of earlier differences", adding that they welcomed the involvement of international organizations in Iraq, particularly the United Nations.
The two leaders also stressed their strong determination to carry on their efforts on fighting terror, claiming that a democratic Iraq is important for defeating international terrorism.
Echoing Bush, who praised Britain as US closest ally, Blair told reporters that "there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can, and in defeating it utterly."
Analysts here say amid the escalating instability in Iraq, it was not difficult to understand why Britain and the United States have achieved so many "common things" on Iraq and fighting terror.
As the violence in Iraq seemed to be spiraling out of control, it has become imminent for the coalition to find an "exit strategy", which can not be relied on small countries without any overseas peacekeeping experience, but should depend on help from the whole international community, especially major European countries.
Yet what looks like a little bit weird was that all the common stance that Bush hammered out with Blair during his three-day trip could be arranged during their "weekly" telephone contacts.
So why did Bush made this long trip to London when anti-war campaigners vowed to "berate" him whenever he was?
As the first US president to pay a state visit to Britain since the Queen came to the throne 52 years ago, Bush could use "the historic trip" to bolster his 2004 re-election campaign, which could be endangered by his handling of Iraq, analysts say.
Standing side by side with Blair, Bush could show the American people that the United States "has not become isolated" from the international community, with Britain remaining as the staunchest ally, analysts say.
With the Anglo-American alliance at the core, it would be a little bit easier for the United States to secure the multinational forces a strong alliance in Iraq.
For Blair, who has paid heavy political prices for going to the US-led war and failing to find Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, Bush's visit could be used to prove the rightness of his twin pillar policy to maintain alliance with America at the one hand and to strengthen its European Union membership on the other hand. Maintaining a strong alliance with the United States could heighten the British influence in international affairs.
It might not be known for sure what Bush and Blair would gain from Bush's three-day trip, but their shared enterprise into Iraq has become a shared predicament.
People should not be overoptimistic about the "strong" Anglo-American commitment to boosting their new strategy for power transfer in Iraq, analysts argue.
From the start, the US launched the Iraq war without UN authorization and the international organization was denied a leading role in rebuilding the war-torn Iraq.
As long as the United Nations is not totally involved in the reconstruction process, it will not be easy for the coalition to win wide support from the international community.
(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2003)
