US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were to mount a defiant show of solidarity upon the US president's arrival in London yesterday for his first visit to a major European capital since war in Iraq polarized the world.
Tens of thousands of protesters have vowed to give the president his first taste of European anger at the war.
But if the British prime minister is a reluctant host, he has shown no sign of it, robustly defending his decision to defy other big European powers and support Bush's war in Iraq.
PHOTO: EPA
"The prime minister believes this is precisely the right time for President Bush to be visiting this country," Blair's spokesman said.
"He believes that the majority of people welcome President Bush, recognize the importance of the relationship with America and acknowledge the commitment it is showing to establish democracy in Iraq alongside our diplomats and soldiers."
Organizers expect 100,000 anti-war demonstrators to cap their protest by toppling a giant statue of Bush in central London's Trafalgar Square -- an echo of the toppling of a statue of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in April.
Bush will be met by Prince Charles and stay at Buckingham Palace as a guest of Queen Elizabeth II. But his guardians, fearing an al-Qaeda attack, have ruled out such traditional events as a royal horse-drawn carriage ride.
British police will mount the biggest security clampdown ever for a visiting leader, with weekend suicide bombings in Istanbul adding to the tensions.
British commentators say the visit will be uncomfortable for Blair -- under fire at home over Iraq, especially within his own left-leaning Labour Party.
But Blair has remained steadfast. In a key foreign affairs speech last week he said critics of the war should accept that Iraqis were better off without Saddam, and denounced what he called a "propaganda monster about America."
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw took up the theme yesterday, writing in the Wall Street Journal of a "parody of America that almost demonizes its power and its purpose and seeks to put the ills of the world at its door."
Bush and Blair are expected to hammer out details of plans discussed last week for speeding up the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq to an interim government.
Blair will hope to clinch a deal on British detainees at the US camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There are now 10 Britons among more than 600 prisoners there, and London has complained about plans to try some under special military tribunals.
Bush plans to meet relatives of British soldiers who died in Iraq and has put special emphasis on those meetings in interviews ahead of the visit. But relatives of fallen soldiers are now among the most potent critics of the war.
Reg Keys, whose military policeman son Thomas was killed by an angry mob near the Iraqi city of Basra in June, said he wished he was on the list to meet Bush.
"I wouldn't shake his hand. I'd love to meet him, but I'd refuse his hand," he said. "I'd say: 'I can't shake that hand. It's stained with the blood of my son.'"
See Story Majority of British voters back Bush visit to London
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