Washington, Nov 16: Alongside the pomp and splendour of the first state visit by a US president to Britain in the coming week, George W Bush is due to hold urgent talks on Iraq with Prime Minister Tony Blair. Bush said ahead of his historic visit that it was an "exciting" time for both to be leaders. But in many ways the American President's visit to London will be a test of the so-called "special relationship" between the trans-Atlantic allies.
Bush and Blair maintained a united front against reluctant allies before and during the Iraq war but now both are paying the price of the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction.
The British Prime Minister's popularity has plummeted because of the war and the apparent suicide of top British weapons expert David Kelly over the way evidence against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was presented.
With US casualties mounting daily in Iraq, opinion polls show most of the American public disapproves of Bush's policy in the country. And the us president has been forced to seek ways to speed up a return of Iraqi self-rule.
Winning the post-Saddam peace will be the key topic when Bush and Blair hold their own talks on the sidelines of Bush's engagements with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, which is the official reason for the visit from Tuesday until Friday.
Bureau Report