BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, will meet President Bush at Camp David on Saturday for talks on the gathering international crisis over Iraq.
British sources last night insisted the summit at the presidential retreat was "not a council of war" but rather "part of the continuing conversation" between the two leaders.
Mr Blair's most recent telephone conference with the US President was on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the Sedgefield press conference at which the prime minister declared the Iraqi regime a "real and unique" threat to the Middle East and the wider world.
However, the sources agreed Saturday's face-to-face talks did represent "a quickening of the diplomatic pulse" amid reports that President Bush could seek congressional approval for a military strike against Iraq as early as next month.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on that question last night, although the emerging Washington timetable would seem to fit with the British Prime Minister's promise to produce a dossier of evidence against President Saddam Hussein within the next few weeks.
Two key items for the Bush/Blair agenda on Saturday concern the possibility of a fresh UN resolution in respect of military action against Iraq, and the question of what kind of regime might replace Mr Saddam. While the British government has not formally committed itself to "regime change" in Iraq, official sources indicated this would be among the issues to be considered by the President and Prime Minister as part of their "thinking through" exercise.
The question of further reference back to the Security Council, however, remained "open". Mr Blair is plainly keen to involve the UN, provided the UN "process" proves the means of resolving the issue of Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and not the instrument of further delay.
Meanwhile, it seems clear there will be real limits to the amount of up-to-date intelligence contained in the eagerly awaited dossier of evidence against Mr Saddam, not least because weapons inspectors have not been in the country since 1998.
Labour MP Mr Bruce George, chairman of the Commons defence committee, warned Mr Blair his dossier would have to be very convincing if it was to have any chance of limiting unease about the prospect of military action.
And Liberal Democrat spokesman Mr Menzies Campbell predicted: "If the long-awaited dossier does not come up to scratch, the campaign for public support will turn into an uphill struggle."
At the same time the vice- chairman of the Stop the War coalition, Labour MP Mr John McDonnell, questioned whether Mr Blair had any genuine evidence against Iraq at all. However, Foreign Office minister Mr Mike O'Brien insisted the dossier would make "the whole case" against Iraq, telling the BBC: "If Saddam Hussein has nothing to hide, then he's nothing to fear from the UN weapons inspectors."
There was encouragement for Downing Street from a poll conducted by GMTV showing 65 per cent of Britons would support Mr Blair in action against Iraq if the dossier produced damning evidence that Mr Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction.