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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，布莱尔最后一次以首相身份开始他的访美之行，他希望通过此行向国际舆论表明，美国失去盟友后，如今不安宁的世界将会变得更加危险。
布什总统对他最亲密的盟友表示了热情问候，之后，二人单独共餐。据工作人员介绍，两位领导人的谈话内容将以美国领导的“反恐战争”为主。
担任首相十年之久的布莱尔将于6月27日离任，摄影记者抢着拍下他离任前最后一次与布什进行白宫会晤的场景。面对接二连三的闪光灯，布莱尔有些吃惊。布什调侃他说：“你是名人！”
两位领导人将于周四在白宫的玫瑰园召开新闻发布会，这标志着英美两国在2001年“9·11”恐怖袭击及伊拉克战争中所建立的合作伙伴关系即将结束。
尽管布莱尔首相因支持布什严重影响了他在国内的支持率，但他坚持自己的做法是对的。
他在本周二接受美国全国广播公司的采访时说：“我认为英国应成为美国坚定的盟友，我从未怀疑过这一点。”
“如果我们对此有异议，那么这对于我们国家来说将是十分可怕的。”
“如果美国退出了，如果美国决定撒手不管，向全世界宣布，‘你们来处理吧！’这将是个最大的危险。我们需要美国的参与。”
布什总统和布莱尔首相在首次会晤时就发现他们爱用高露洁牙膏的共同点，在这一“著名”发现之后的六年里，两人在世界很多热点地区并肩战斗。
布莱尔说，他已经习惯了别人嘲笑自己为布什的“哈巴狗”。
他说：“布什总统是个很坦率的人，他是一位信守诺言、十分坚决果断的领导人。”
布莱尔说，伊拉克频起的血腥暴动、来自阿富汗塔利班的不断威胁已成为“范围越来越广的世界斗争”的一部分。
“如果我们退出，如果我们放弃，如果我们表现出任何撤退的迹象，这将使我们所面临的敌人将会变得强大起来。"
布莱尔首相宣布即将离任之后，布什于上周五向他表达了自己“由衷”的敬意。
布什说：“我会想念他的。他是个不平凡的人。我视他为好友。”
（英语点津姗姗编辑）
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