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US President Bush and British PM Tony Blair
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Prime Minister Tony Blair began his last trip here as British leader Wednesday, armed with a parting shot to global opinion that US isolation would make a restive world far more dangerous.
President George W. Bush greeted his closest foreign ally warmly before the two headed into a private dinner that aides said would be dominated by talks about the US-led "war on terror."
Blair looked startled by a barrage of flashes from photographers chronicling his last White House meetings with Bush before he steps down on June 27, after a decade in power. "You're a famous person," his host quipped.
The two leaders were due to hold a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Thursday, heralding the end to a tumultuous partnership forged in the heat of the September 11 attacks of 2001 and the war in Iraq.
Despite the crippling cost that his support of Bush inflicted on his popularity at home, Blair insists that he did the right thing.
"I believe our country should be a strong ally of America, and I've never had any problem with that," he said in an interview with US network NBC Tuesday.
"I think it will be a very dark day for my country when we do have a problem with it," Blair said.
"The biggest danger is if America disengages, if it decides to pull up the drawbridge and say to the rest of the world, 'Well you go and sort it out.' We need America engaged."
After famously discovering a shared taste for Colgate toothpaste at their first meeting, the Republican president and the British Labour leader marched in lock-step through many of the world's hot-spots over the past six years.
Blair said he had learned tolive withtaunts of being Bush's "poodle" or "lapdog."
"I've found him immensely straightforward to deal with, someone alwaystrue to his wordand someone who's a very strong leader," he said.
The blood-soaked insurgency in Iraq and enduring threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan form part of a "broader global struggle," Blair added.
"And if we back away, if we give up on it, if we show any signs of retreat at all, then the enemy we face worldwide will be strengthened."
Bush paid his ownfulsometribute to Blair last Friday, after the British leader announced his departure.
"I'm going to miss him. He's a remarkable person. And I consider him a good friend," Bush said.
(Reuters)
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本周三，布萊爾最后一次以首相身份開始他的訪美之行，他希望通過此行向國際輿論表明，美國失去盟友后，如今不安寧的世界將會變得更加危險。
布什總統對他最親密的盟友表示了熱情問候，之后，二人單獨共餐。據工作人員介紹，兩位領導人的談話內容將以美國領導的“反恐戰爭”為主。
擔任首相十年之久的布萊爾將于6月27日離任，攝影記者搶著拍下他離任前最后一次與布什進行白宮會晤的場景。面對接二連三的閃光燈，布萊爾有些吃驚。布什調侃他說：“你是名人！”
兩位領導人將于周四在白宮的玫瑰園召開新聞發布會，這標志著英美兩國在2001年“9·11”恐怖襲擊及伊拉克戰爭中所建立的合作伙伴關系即將結束。
盡管布萊爾首相因支持布什嚴重影響了他在國內的支持率，但他堅持自己的做法是對的。
他在本周二接受美國全國廣播公司的采訪時說：“我認為英國應成為美國堅定的盟友，我從未懷疑過這一點。”
“如果我們對此有異議，那么這對于我們國家來說將是十分可怕的。”
“如果美國退出了，如果美國決定撒手不管，向全世界宣布，‘你們來處理吧！’這將是個最大的危險。我們需要美國的參與。”
布什總統和布萊爾首相在首次會晤時就發現他們愛用高露潔牙膏的共同點，在這一“著名”發現之后的六年里，兩人在世界很多熱點地區并肩戰斗。
布萊爾說，他已經習慣了別人嘲笑自己為布什的“哈巴狗”。
他說：“布什總統是個很坦率的人，他是一位信守諾言、十分堅決果斷的領導人。”
布萊爾說，伊拉克頻起的血腥暴動、來自阿富汗塔利班的不斷威脅已成為“范圍越來越廣的世界斗爭”的一部分。
“如果我們退出，如果我們放棄，如果我們表現出任何撤退的跡象，這將使我們所面臨的敵人將會變得強大起來。"
布萊爾首相宣布即將離任之后，布什于上周五向他表達了自己“由衷”的敬意。
布什說：“我會想念他的。他是個不平凡的人。我視他為好友。”
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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