‘We will not flinch in face of terror attacks’
At a joint news conference at the Foreign Office, the US President said that he was ready to deploy more troops to Iraq "whatever is necessary" to deal with the terrorist threat.
The two leaders delivered their defiant message as thousands of anti-war demonstrators took to the streets of London to protest against Mr Bush's visit and the continuing coalition presence in Iraq.
But despite the warm words, there was no agreement announced on either US steel tariffs or the British detainees held at Guantanamo Bay two of the key issues raised by the British during the visit.
At a press conference dominated by events in Istanbul, the British Prime Minister said the attacks had shown that Iraq was now the "main battleground" in the war against terrorism.
"It is in a free, democratic and stable Iraq that not just the violence, but the wretched and backward philosophy of these terrorists will be defeated and destroyed," Mr Blair said.
Mr Bush said completing the transition to democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan was "essential" to the defeat of global terrorism.
"The spread of freedom and the hope it brings is the surest way in the long term to combat despair and anger and resentment that feeds terror," he said. "Our mission in Iraq is noble and it is necessary. No act of thugs or killers will change our resolve or alter their fate. A free Iraq will be free of them. We will finish the job we have begun."
In a marked departure from statements by the Pentagon that it wanted to reduce troop numbers in Iraq ahead of next year's US presidential elections, Mr Bush said that more American troops could be deployed.
Both leaders denounced the Istanbul bombings.
Mr Blair also said that they would not "flinch" in the face of the terrorist threat. "If they think that when they go and kill people by these terrorist attacks, they are going to somehow weaken us, or make us think, well, let's shuffle to the back of the queue and hide away from this, they are wrong," he said.
"That is not the tradition of my country, and it's not the tradition of the British people or the American people."
