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Tony Blair was a willing participant in the battle to topple Saddam Hussein from the beginning. Accusations from anti-war protesters and Left-wing Labour MPs that he was George W Bush's "poodle", just doing America's bidding, are wide of the mark. Even before the post-9/11 war against terrorism pushed Iraq to the forefront of America's concerns, Mr Blair was deeply worried about weapons of mass destruction. In 1998, he had been involved with Bill Clinton, Mr Bush's predecessor, in missile strikes on Iraq after Saddam was accused of hampering the UN weapons inspectors. Reports from Britain's intelligence agencies about Saddam's chemical...

The waiting is all but over. The summit in the Azores has concluded. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar have presented a united front. The world knows that Monday is the last day for a diplomatic solution to Iraq. Otherwise — war. But in a sense this second war against Saddam Hussein began in our imagination months, even years ago. To communicate how dangerous the dictator is, war hawks have drawn vivid historical connections in the public mind: that Saddam is Stalin, that his Baath party resembles the Nazi party, that...

LAJES, Azores Islands (AP) - On the brink of war, President Bush and summit partners from Britain and Spain gave the United Nations a Monday deadline to endorse the use of force to compel Iraq's immediate disarmament. "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world," said Bush, commander-in-chief of 250,000 troops ringing Iraq and ready to act with or without U.N. approval. He spoke Sunday after an Atlantic island summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Though the leaders pledged to seek compromise with U.N. foes through the night and all day...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Sunday welcomed the outcome of the Azores summit on Iraq (news - web sites) because it provided for an another bid to reach consensus at the U.N. Security council. "We are pleased to see that the United States, the United Kingdom and Spain have pledged to make another attempt to help the Security Council reach a unified position," a statement from Chretien's office said. Hosts Portugal also took part in the summit earlier on Sunday, at which U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) said the United Nations (news...

The Azores Summit will go down in history as the time when the talking stopped. "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world," said George W Bush, before reiterating his support for an interim authority in a liberated Iraq. Mr Bush added that today would be the last day when diplomacy could work."Without a credible ultimatum," said Tony Blair, "more discussion just means more delay." Appealing for the world to unite behind such an ultimatum, he added that "we are in the final stages. Now is the time when we have to decide." This was an ultimatum in all...

Shoulder to shoulder: Tony Blair and President Bush in the Azores. TONY BLAIR and George W. Bush met on a tiny volcanic speck in the Atlantic ocean, the farthest reach of Europe towards America, to make a last gesture towards peace — and prepare for imminent war. Along with José-María Aznar of Spain, the three war leaders met on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores; they talked, briefly, spoke of last-ditch diplomacy, and warned Saddam once again, but it was clear that conflict may be only hours away. “We are in the final stages,” said Blair. “Now...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As President Bush headed to an emergency summit in the Azores, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday he did not expect a new diplomatic effort to emerge from the 11th-hour diplomatic review. Appearing on the ABC "This Week" program from Washington, where he said he remained to coordinate with other foreign ministers as the showdown with Iraq reached a climax, Powell reiterated that the United States opposed giving Saddam Hussein much additional time to disarm as demanded by the United Nations. "I'm not expecting, really, a new proposal" to come from the three-way session between...

By ED McCULLOUGH, Associated Press WriterLAJES, Azores Islands - With no real hope of solving a diplomatic crisis on disarming Iraq (news - web sites) and time running out, U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) and the prime ministers of Britain, Spain and Portugal flew to this mid-Atlantic island Sunday to decide a final strategy.   Even before the summit in the Azores archipelago located 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) off southern Europe's coast, officials on both sides of the Atlantic were pessimistic that any new resolution backing a U.S.-led war would garner approval at the U.N. Security...

For all the leaders at the summit in the Azores, it was important to keep all options on the table — at least in public. The Americans said beforehand that there would be “no declaration of war”. Downing Street insisted that the meeting at Lajes airbase was not a council of war, but a last chance to let diplomacy work. And José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, brushed aside suggestions that the statesmen were looking at ways of withdrawing the resolution they were hoping to put before the United Nations Security Council. Going the extra mile, even now, was...

<p>LAJES, Azores Islands  — President Bush and allied leaders agreed on one final attempt to win world backing Monday for the swift disarmament of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "Tomorrow is a moment of truth for the world," the president said at a Sunday summit with allies.</p>

<p>"We, the leaders of four democracies with strong trans-Atlantic affiliation, meet at a time of great challenge. We face painful choices.</p> <p>We uphold a vision of international security we share with other nations. Our nations and people know the horror of war, whether visited upon us, or whether we are called to confront a great danger.</p>

Can anybody confirm 4:30 EST on CSpan? Any other scheduled re-broadcasts?? Many thanks Prairie

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Sunday the U.S.-British-Spanish summit on Iraq seemed to end with a divided message. Blix told Swedish public service SVT2 television he did not rule out visiting Baghdad but also that the U.N. was prepared to evacuate the weapons inspectors at short notice. "I find the message from there slightly divided. On the one hand (U.S.) President Bush seems to be talking mainly about how to liberate Iraq and make sure they have no weapons left there while (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and (Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria) Aznar...

Text of the statement on Iraq that was released Sunday at a summit in the Azores Islands: STATEMENT OF THE ATLANTIC SUMMIT: A VISION FOR IRAQ AND THE IRAQI PEOPLE Iraq's talented people, rich culture, and tremendous potential have been hijacked by Saddam Hussein. His brutal regime has reduced a country with a long and proud history to an international pariah that oppresses its citizens, started two wars of aggression against its neighbors, and still poses a grave threat to the security of its region and the world. Saddam's defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding the disarmament of...

For discussion.

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- The weekend summit on Iraq with President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will give Spain and its prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, a rare taste of prominence. But Sunday's summit also could backfire for Aznar if he and Blair -- both in trouble politically at home for backing Bush -- fail to wrest concessions from a U.S. leader many Spaniards see as itching for battle. Aznar has said the crisis over Iraq's banned weapons provides Spain with a unique chance to step forward and shed its image as a sleepy geopolitical nobody. ``We don't...

President Bush leaves for the Azores Saturday for a meeting with the leaders of Britain and Spain to discuss their U.N. resolution against Iraq. With that measure facing a French and Russian veto President Bush says he is ready to attack Iraq, regardless of what the United Nations decides. With little chance of passing their U.N. resolution, the question for the leaders in the Azores is whether to push ahead with a symbolic vote, or go to war without one. In his weekly radio address, President Bush said "crucial days" lie ahead for nations to show whether they will act...

WASHINGTON - President Bush said on Saturday he saw little hope Iraq would disarm peacefully, bracing the American people for war ahead of an emergency summit with allies Britain and Spain. Bush will travel to Portugal's wind-swept Azores islands, 900 miles west of the European mainland, on Sunday to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for what the White House portrayed as a final diplomatic push for a U.N. resolution demanding that Iraq disarm or face attack. In preparation for the summit, Bush called Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, telling Berlusconi...

hree men meeting on an Atlantic island seems an apt symbol for the failure of the Bush administration to draw the world around its Iraq policy. That's not the intended message of President Bush's meeting today in the Azores with Prime Ministers Tony Blair of Britain and José María Aznar of Spain, but it's hard to avoid that impression. In what appears to be the final days before an American invasion of Iraq, Mr. Bush is taking time to consult with two loyal allies and, ostensibly, to decide if any realistic chance remains for a new United Nations Security Council...

The carefully choreographed meeting in the Azores between George Bush, Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar is in effect a council of war. After deadlock, the "moment of truth" Officially, the line is that it will examine the possibility of taking diplomacy forward, and it could be that the Security Council will be offered one last and brief chance to reach agreement. But the reality is that the Council negotiations are getting nowhere, the United States is running out of patience, and "the moment of truth", as Mr Bush's National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice put it, is at hand. What...