Blair to Visit Bush Next Week for Talks Dominated by Iraq [View All]

[kskiska]

LONDON, April 5 — Prime Minister Tony Blair will fly to Washington next week for a meeting with President Bush that will be dominated by concern over mounting instability and the political transition in Iraq, British officials said Monday.

The meeting comes at a critical moment for the American-British alliance in Iraq as dual insurgencies by disaffected Sunni Muslims, who backed Saddam Hussein, and militant Shiites flare. Details of the Bush-Blair agenda were being closely held, but officials here said it would focus on how to stabilize the country while seeking to adhere to the June 30 timetable for turning over sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

British officials said Mr. Blair's trip had been scheduled for some time and therefore was not a "crisis" summit meeting on Iraq. But the officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because the meeting has not been officially announced yet, said the sudden spike in violence and instability in the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad and in Shiite neighborhoods and towns would transform the meeting into a strategic review of policies toward Iraq.

Thus the meeting is likely to shape the strategy of the two leaders for managing Iraq through the coming months, which will test the allies' ability to turn over power during a summer that will also be dominated by important dates in the presidential election in the United States.

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