Tony blair has an almost mystical faith in his powers of persuasion. In his meeting with President Bush at Camp David on September 7th, he will need all his skill if he is to reconcile his party's growing hostility to a strike against Iraq with the American administration's insistence that there has to be a regime change in Iraq. At a press conference this week Mr Blair struck a hawkish line, stressing that Britain was ready to join America in military action to enforce UN resolutions. He was sceptical whether Iraq would accept the return of weapons inspectors. And he even suggested that "regime change" in Iraq was a shared objective. But the tone of the prime minister's private talks with the president will be different. He will have been relieved by the more internationalist line coming out of Washington over the past few days; officials say he will focus on the need for the widest possible international backing for action against Iraq. This would almost certainly require the involvement of the United Nations: a new Security Council resolution and negotiations on the return of weapons inspectors backed by a deadline. Mr Blair is also expected to stress the need for progress to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
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