Bush, Blair plan 2-day meeting in U.S.

WASHINGTON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit President Bush this week, giving the two allied leaders a chance to plot strategy in the war with Iraq and plan for its aftermath.

Blair will arrive Wednesday and the two leaders will go to Bush's presidential retreat at Camp David to continue their talks Thursday, a diplomatic source told The Associated Press.

Blair, at some considerable political risk, has stood firmly with the United States on the need to use force to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Of late, Blair's popularity in Britain appears to be rising, as has Bush's as U.S. and British troops advance toward Baghdad.

The president and the prime minister joined forces against a strong anti-war bloc in the United Nations, led by France and including Russia and Germany. The rift has created strains in the United Nations and NATO, a topic likely to be on the two leaders' agenda.

Postwar Iraq is another likely topic. Blair favors a strong U.N. role in authorizing a post-Saddam government in Baghdad. But France and Russia appear determined to block the move.

French President Jacques Chirac, furious that he could not stop the war, has said permitting the United States and Britain to oversee creation of a new Iraqi government would reward them for starting a war that flouted world opinion.

Chirac has threatened to veto any attempt at the United Nations to "legitimatize the military intervention" and "give the belligerents the power to administer Iraq."

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia would "certainly reject" any resolution that that attempts to "legitimize the military action and a postwar settlement in Iraq."

France and Russia had argued that Iraq could be disarmed gradually through extended U.N. weapons inspections. Germany flatly opposed war, but Secretary of State Colin Powell has said he hoped Germany could play a role in rebuilding Iraq.

Reconstruction of Iraq is already under discussion, with the United States likely to foot most of the bill, although contributions from others will be sought.

Bush and Blair met in the Azores in the eastern Atlantic on March 16, along with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, to confirm their intention to use force against Iraq. They were also supported by Portugal, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands.