Blair to Fly to Us for Middle East Talks

Tony Blair will fly to Washington tomorrow for talks with President Bush about the deteriorating situation in Israel and Lebanon and increasing sectarian violence in Iraq.

The prime minister's trip to the White House comes after the foreign secretary took the highly unusual step of publicly criticising the United States - a move Mr Blair did not follow.

Margaret Beckett spoke out amid accusations the US had not followed the right procedures over the use of Prestwick airport for arms flights bound for Israel.

The revelation that US planes carrying bunker-busting missiles stopped off on UK soil has dismayed many in the Labour party who view Israeli military action in Lebanon as disproportionate.

Critics, already concerned that Mr Blair is uncomfortably associated with the White House's support for Israel, seized on the news as proof Britain was being used as a "bargaining chip".

Sir Stephen Wall, a former senior advisor on foreign affairs, has also accused the PM of "hitching the UK to the chariot of the US president".

Washington and London were both left isolated at the Rome summit yesterday when they resisted the demands of other European and Arab governments for a unanimous call for an immediate cessation of violence.

The US and UK argued that it was more important to create the conditions necessary for a "sustainable" ceasefire in a conflict that has now claimed the lives of nearly 600 Lebanese.

Critics of Mr Blair's relationship with Mr Bush were boosted by a Guardian/ICM poll this week, which showed that 63% of voters felt Britain was too close to America.

The public also appeared to disagree with Mr Blair and President Bush's resistance to a call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, with 61% of voters feeling that that Israel had "over-reacted" in its military strikes against Hizbullah.

Mr Blair was widely criticized by MPs and media commentators for being "supine" when his private conversation with President Bush at the St Petersburg G8 Summit two weeks ago was recorded by a live microphone.

The conversation, during which President Bush used the greeting "Yo Blair", showed the prime minister's offer to travel to the Middle East being rebuffed by the president.

However with the "war on terror" still raging in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Lebanon, and with wider diplomatic tensions with Iran, Syria and North Korea, both leaders will undoubtedly present a united front when they appear before the cameras later tomorrow.