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http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020405/1/2njkq.html AFP Friday April 5, 20:34 PM Mideast, war on terrorism, to top Bush-Blair talks in Texas President George W. Bush welcomes British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his Texas ranch, their "shoulder-to-shoulder" stand on Iraq and the war on terrorism overshadowed by the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Facing mounting world pressure for US action to quell the bloodshed, Bush announced Thursday he was sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East next week to try to arrange a ceasefire and revive efforts to reach a political settlement between Israelis and Palestinians. "I've decided to send Secretary of State Powell to the region next week," Bush said in a White House address a day before meeting the British prime minister in tiny Crawford, Texas. In London, the British government immediately welcomed deeper US involvement in efforts to defuse the Middle East crisis, and called on both Israelis and Palestinians to respond courageously to the US initiative. "The fact that America is engaged, is becoming more engaged, is extremely welcomed and it is something that the British government and our prime minister have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve," Junior Foreign Office minister Ben Bradshaw said. The weekend talks at Bush's "Prairie Chapel" property will be the third time the president meets with his most steadfast European ally since the September 11 terror strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The two leaders had been expected to focus on action against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the likely next major target in the "war on terrorism," but a Blair spokesman made clear that efforts to revive the stricken peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would dominate. The Middle East crisis has been exacerbated by a seven-day Israeli blitz across the West Bank in response to a wave of deadly suicide bombings. Blair and Bush discussed the issue in a telephone conversation on Thursday, British officials, without giving further details. The two leaders have both expressed support for the creation of a viable Palestinian state as long as Israel is allowed to co-exist peacefully alongside it. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday that the Middle East would be part of "a very wide-ranging series of discussions," including the Middle East, the war on terror and NATO enlargement. Britain is playing a key role in the war on terrorism, having sent up to 1,800 troops to help stabilise the new regime in Afghanistan. Currently, Britain is busy flying in 1,700 elite commandos in what is the country's biggest deployment for front-line operations since the 1991 Gulf War. Tony Blair described the Middle East conflict as "a tragic situation that has the makings of a catastrophe", as Britain stepped up criticism of Israel's invasion of Palestinian territories. "Indeed for those people that are already living there and experiencing it, it will be a catastrophe for them," Blair said in an interview with NBC News. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
