Guantanamo expected to be on Bush-Blair agenda
Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush are scheduled to meet in Washington next Thursday.
The gathering is timely as the storm over the justification for the Iraq war shows no sign of abating.
It comes amid allegations on both sides of the Atlantic that the leaders went to war knowing that evidence connecting Saddam Hussein with attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction was flimsy.
Evidence that Iraq has WMDS or tried to acquire them has yet to be unveiled.
Separately, the PM is expected to press his US counterpart to pave the way for the repatriation of two British terror suspects, currently facing a US military trial at Guantanamo Bay.
If found guilty, Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg could face the death penalty in Cuba over their involvement with the al-Qaeda network.
Plans to award Mr Blair with the congressional gold badge of honour for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the US during the Iraq war have been put on ice given the challenging political climate both leaders find themselves in.
Following his trip to Washington, the PM will fly to Japan on Thursday, the starting point of his diplomatic tour of Asia.
Mr Blair will spend most of the weekend in Tokyo before flying to Seoul for talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-yun.
On Monday and Tuesday he will visit Beijing and Shanghai for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
And on Thursday, Mr Blair will visit Hong Kong for talks with Tung Chee-hwa, chief executive of the former British colony.
