Blair, Bush Huddle At White House

A lot has happened in the past five months.

That's how long it's been since President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair last met face-to-face, and they'll have a lot to discuss Friday as Blair drops by the White House.

The two leaders - who together led the war in Iraq, and have both weathered domestic and international criticism over the case they made for that war -are expected to continue to show a united front on that issue in the hopes of boosting public support on both sides of the Atlantic.

Their meeting is also intended to bolster the somewhat wobbly coalition involving other military allies in the war.

Bush and Blair plan to meet for 90 minutes, hold a joint news conference, and then return for an hour-long private lunch.

The meeting comes amid rising casualty numbers in Iraq and an increasingly violent resistance among some Iraqi factions to American and British military presence in the country.

Also prominently in the backdrop for Friday's White House discussions is the June 30th deadline for handing off political power to an Iraqi interim government.

The U.S. and Britain are trying to forge a strategy to get the United Nations to issue a new resolution on Iraq, hoping that might persuade more countries to send troops into the country and ease the U.S. and British burden.

The British have reported nearly 60 soldiers killed in Iraq, the United States, nearly 700, including 88 killed this month. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed surprise Thursday at the number of recent casualties.

Appearances will be important in this session, says Sir Christopher Meyer, British ambassador in Washington until last year.

"One of the key public messages that they will wish to give at the end of this visit is that they stand absolutely shoulder-to-shoulder on what needs to be done next," said Meyer.

"The question is, can this faltering operation be saved, be turned around, or is it too late?" said James Dobbins, a former senior State Department official in the Clinton and first Bush administrations. "This is a joint enterprise, and it's not going well."

Blair arrives in Washington fresh from talks Thursday night with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.

Among issues on the table is a proposal by Annan's special envoy to Iraq, to create a caretaker government to succeed the U.S. administration in Baghdad.

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday called U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimni's proposal "very sound" but a State Department spokesman said it was premature to say that the administration was endorsing it.

U.N. Security Council members want to wait to hear from Brahimi before acting on a new resolution.

Bush earlier this week at a news conference said he would like to get a new U.N. resolution "that will help other nations to decide to participate" in Iraq.

The United States has about 130,000 troops in Iraq, followed by Britain's 12,000.

Powell first raised the idea of a new U.N. resolution last week, saying it would help the Iraqi transitional government, promote reconstruction, encourage other nations to get involved, and structure a role for the United Nations.

"How does the new Iraqi government on July 1 ask for a foreign troop presence to support it, when Spanish troops are pulling out?" said Robin Niblett, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's critical to get this U.N. resolution in the very little time" that remains, he said.

Likewise, NATO is reluctant to contribute forces to help stabilize Iraq without a U.N. resolution, said Charles Kupchan, professor of international relations at Georgetown University.

Without it "NATO won't touch Iraq with a 10-foot pole," Kupchan said.

White House officials said Bush and Blair also plan to discuss Mideast peace efforts. Bush this week expressed support for Jewish settlements on the West Bank and opposition to Palestinian refugees returning to Israel.

Also on the agenda is a U.N. plan to reunify Cyprus. In parallel referendums April 24 in both the Greek and Turkish parts of the Mediterranean island, voters will be asked whether to accept the U.N. blueprint.