Final act looms for the 'George and Tony show'

WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday bring the Washington curtain down on one of the most controversial double-acts in global affairs.   

A Bush-Blair news conference in the White House Rose Garden will be the high point of Blair's farewell trip to the US capital before he stands down as British leader on June 27, after a decade backing Bush and President Bill Clinton before him to the hilt.   

Bush and Blair discussed US-led "war on terror" during a dinner on Wednesday night and Blair headed into the trip with a clarion call for world leaders to remain engaged with the United States.   

"The biggest danger is if America disengages, if it decides to pull up the drawbridge and say to the rest of the world, 'Well you go and sort it out.' We need America engaged," he told US television network NBC.   

For Bush and Blair, having discovered a shared taste in Colgate toothpaste at their first Camp David summit, the end is nigh for an alliance forged in the cauldron of the September 11 attacks of 2001 and the war in Iraq.   

Outside Washington, they will meet at least one more time next month in Germany for the Group of Eight (G8) summit.   

By then, Bush could be scrambling to fill a vacancy at the World Bank if its embattled president Paul Wolfowitz is forced out. Some pundits have even touted Blair as a possible replacement.   

Bush and Blair are full of praise for each other's leadership, leaving some to speculate that the demise of what Time magazine christened "the George and Tony show" could leave the Republican president more isolated than ever.   

Over Iraq, only Australian Prime Minister John Howard came close to Blair's levels of backing for Bush -- and Howard now faces a fight for his job in elections expected later this year.   

Nervous about an old-style power grab by the Kremlin in Russia, Bush has now distanced himself from the policies of President Vladimir Putin, having claimed in 2001 that he'd been able "to get a sense of his soul".   

But while he heads into the sunset of his second and final term, Bush may be finding new friends in unlikely places.   

The United States and Germany, under Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been working hard to mend ties stretched nearly to breaking point by the war in Iraq.   

And Bush is looking forward to working with the "capable" new president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.   

Bush was to meet with Sarkozy, Blair and leaders of other top industrial nations at a summit in Germany next month, and observers said all efforts were being made to preserve good relations amid a US-European divide over Wolfowitz's World Bank tenure.    

Under Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who is certain to be Britain's next leader, analysts do not expect any open breach in the Anglo-US "special relationship" even if Brown might not share Blair's intimacy with Bush.   

In the meantime, however, there is no shortage of headaches for Bush and Blair to thrash out, according to the White House. Those range from Iraq and Afghanistan to Middle East peace and Iran's nuclear ambitions, via climate change, the Darfur "genocide" and trade liberalization.   

Blair, adamant that he has no regrets about invading Iraq, argues that the insurgency there and enduring threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan form part of a "broader global struggle".   

"And if we back away, if we give up on it, if we show any signs of retreat at all, then the enemy we face worldwide will be strengthened," he told NBC.   

But for their legion of critics, the US and British duo's decision to invade Iraq has veered from farce to deadly tragedy, while making the world a far more dangerous place.   

"The rap on Blair was that he was Bill Clinton's best friend," said Ari Fleischer, Bush's first White House press secretary. "Who would have guessed that a conservative like George Bush and a Labour liberal like Tony Blair would have such a similar world view?"