British defence chiefs “ramped up” planning for possible involvement in a US invasion of Iraq after a key meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush, the inquiry into the war heard today.

Tony Blair and George Bush may have agreed the need for regime change in Iraq in private discussions at the US president's ranch, the Iraq Inquiry has heard.

The presidential finale for George Bush includes a goodbye to Washington and a hello from fellow Texans.

George Bush and his wife Laura have bought a home in an affluent area of North Dallas, where they will live after the US President leaves office in January.

WHEN US President George W Bush was relentlessly grilled by Carol Coleman some years ago, I recall he kept asking to be allowed to finish his point.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under fire from congressional Democrats, has resigned, senior Bush administration officials said today.

President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush briefly paid their respects Gerald Ford today, joining thousands of ordinary Americans in saying goodbye to the former president.

The number of American deaths in the Iraq war has reached the milestone of 3,000 as the Bush administration seeks to overhaul its strategy for an unpopular conflict that shows little sign of abating.

The execution of Saddam Hussein will not make the US safer and will only increase the violence in Iraq, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said today.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates rushed back to Washington to give President George Bush advice on transforming US policy in Iraq after talks in the war zone with military and political leaders.

The US and France agreed yesterday on a draft UN Security Council resolution that seeks a full halt to fighting in Lebanon, breaking a three-week impasse caused partly by Washington’s refusal to press Israel to end its offensive against Hezbollah.

The Communist leadership assured Cubans yesterday that acting president Raul Castro was in firm control of the nation, backed by the military and ready to repel any attack.

ANTI-WAR activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested and removed from the gallery on Tuesday night just before US President George W Bush’s State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

The US Justice Department has opened another investigation into leaks of classified information, this time to determine who divulged the existence of President George Bush’s secret domestic spying programme.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is “shining the shoes” of US president George Bush by allowing Shannon Airport to be used by American war planes, it was claimed today.

US President George Bush today vowed to remember the “days of sorrow” following the tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean a year earlier and killed more than 200,000 people.

President George Bush has paid tribute to US Gold Star mothers, honouring the deaths of their sons and daughters in the military as activists began gathering for an Iraq anti-war protest on Saturday.

US President George Bush is expected to visit storm-ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast later this week, but first he is returning to Washington to oversee the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

US president George Bush again vowed that there would be no retreat from the war in Iraq as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd of military families.

Jeremy Deller, the artist behind a film about US President George Bush’s home town, was tonight named the winner of this year’s Turner Prize.

Democratic Unionist leaders are to meet the head of the North’s independent disarmament body before saying whether they will accept or reject plans to revive power- sharing, the party confirmed today.

US President George W Bush tonight pledged he to do everything he could to help Northern Ireland’s parties to strike a deal in talks to revive power-sharing.

US President George Bush warned tonight that the world “is watching very closely” as Ukraine tries to sort out a disputed presidential election.

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for negotiations among all sides in Ukraine hours after opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared himself the winner of a disputed presidential election.

President George Bush prepared to declare re-election victory today even though Democratic rival John Kerry refused to concede as results in the key state of Ohio remained uncertain.

President George Bush and challenger John Kerry traded early victories in a tense and testy US presidential election.

President Bush and challenger John Kerry traded early victories in a tense and testy US presidential election.

AFTER a slugfest campaign that intensified through the year, US President George W Bush, voting in Texas, said “I’ve given it my all,” while John Kerry, campaigning in Wisconsin, promised to take the nation “to a better place”.

In an election that could rival the photo finish of 2000, US voters were today choosing between President George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.

The first presidential election since the United States plunged into its war on terrorism was finally handed over to voters today.

AT 6am yesterday, a good hour before dawn, George W Bush was already up and about.

Attacks on John Kerry’s war record may be beginning to have an impact, polls suggest, amid raised voices and new TV ads on a subject at least temporarily dominating debate in the close US presidential race.

HUNDREDS of people descended on the small town of Crawford, Texas, a few miles from US President George W Bush’s ranch - half to show their support and the other half to see the controversial documentary criticising his administration.

AS BILL Clinton basked in the spotlight yesterday at the opening of the Democratic convention, John Kerry visited Florida to press his case as to why voters should put him the White House in place of President George Bush.

Iraqis fighting American troops are not all terrorists, President George Bush said in an interview today, and he insisted he could understand their distaste for occupation.

President George W Bush suffered cuts and bruises when he fell while mountain biking on his ranch, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.

THE White House was in damage-limitation mode over Iraq yesterday after claims that President George W Bush was committed to war while publicly claiming to be pursuing a diplomatic solution.

US National security adviser Condoleezza Rice testified today “there was no silver bullet that could have prevented” the worst terror strike in the nation’s history.

Despite the deaths of 12 US Marines in Iraq yesterday, President Bush declared that the US resolve in Iraq remained "unshakable".

A British Airways pilot almost let the cat out of the bag over US President George Bush’s secret visit to Baghdad.

President George Bush flew home today after surprising US troops in Iraq with a secret Thanksgiving Day visit to thank them for ”defending the American people from danger”.

President George Bush made a surprise visit to American troops in Baghdad today, flying secretly to violence-scarred Iraq on a trip tense with concerns about his safety.

The death toll from the massive car bomb that exploded at Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrine rose to 85 today, with 140 injured.

A crowd of 300 linked arms and marched through downtown Atlanta and the neighbourhoods where Martin Luther King Jr grew up to mark the 40th anniversary of the murdered civil rights leader’s “I Have a Dream” speech.