Blair to Visit Bush Next Week for Talks Dominated by Iraq

[MSgt213]

By PATRICK E. TYLER

Published: April 6, 2004


ONDON, 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.

<snip>

The high-level policy review on Iraq by Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush also comes at a time of growing frustration among some British and American diplomats over the management style of the American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III.

British officials say that while they are sympathetic with the daunting management task that Americans have undertaken, they also believe that the Coalition Provisional Authority under Mr. Bremer has become too "politicized," meaning that events are orchestrated and information controlled with the American political agenda uppermost in mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/international/europe/06BLAI.html

[Tim4319]

1. Uh oh!

It is time to get their stories straight!

[quispquake]

2. Moved by moderator

Not an editorial...