Bush, Blair to Discuss Plans for War’s End, Rebuilding of Iraq

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet next week in Northern Ireland to review final-stage Iraq battle plans and a blueprint for postwar reconstruction.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will join the leaders in Belfast for meetings Tuesday that also will address efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland and the Middle East.

Iraq will dominate their session. The leaders will get joint updates on battle plans and achievements and will discuss thorny issues such as the pace of deliveries of humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians and the reconstruction plans.

Blair is said to want deeper United Nations involvement in postwar Iraq than Bush does.

The meeting will be the third face-to-face talk in slightly more than three weeks.

The British government hopes that the Bush visit demonstrates renewed American interest in the region and helps increase pressure for peace in Northern Ireland.

London and Dublin have been pressing local parties for months to make new concessions designed to keep the 1998 peace accord moving forward. The pact’s key accomplishment -- a joint Catholic-Protestant administration -- fell apart last October.

On the Mideast, Bush promised at Blair’s behest to release his formula for peace once a new Palestinian prime minister is installed and forms a Cabinet.