Blair pledges to maintain strong relationship with Bush in second term

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night congratulated George Bush on his election victory and said he intended to maintain his strong relationship with the president in his second term.

Mr Blair, who spoke by phone to Mr Bush earlier yesterday following his election win, made clear that he will press the president to make peace in the Middle East, a key priority of the next four years, alongside the war on terror.

He urged other European leaders to rebuild bridges with America after the damage to transatlantic relations caused by the Iraq war.

Speaking in 10 Downing Street minutes after Mr Bush's acceptance speech in Washington, Mr Blair said: "it is an important part of our own British national interest that the British prime minister protect and strengthen the bond between our two countries."

European allies alienated by Mr Bush's first term offered to let bygones be bygones yesterday, saying they want to work with his White House. But they also pressed for changes in US foreign policy. "We're going to work with the American administration," said French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. "We have lots to do on current crises: Iraq, the Middle East, Iran, the challenges of the African continent, to rebuild, to renovate transatlantic relations."

Election interest in Europe was intense, as was the disappointment many felt over Mr Bush's win. In Spain, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has pulled his country's troops out of Iraq, stayed up most of the night to watch as Republican red crept across the US electoral map.

Some saw Mr Bush's victory as proof that Europe and the US are further apart than ever. "There is a major and lasting lack of understanding between the American people and the rest of the world, in both directions," said Hubert Vedrine, a French former foreign minister. "Almost all nations, with perhaps three or four exceptions, wanted change."

Others worried that Mr Bush, strengthened by a bigger win than in 2000 and backed by a Republican Congress, would turn a deaf ear to world concerns.

Russian lawmakers and analysts cautioned that second-term US presidents often flex more muscle to secure a place in history and warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could face more pressure and criticism from the White House over his efforts to consolidate power and tinker with Russia's electoral system, which critics have called a retreat from democracy.

"He'll be a lot more powerful now," said Ahmed Khattab, a 20-year-old biology student in Cairo, Egypt. There were appeals for Mr Bush to work on healing the transatlantic rift. "It is not natural to have maybe not a cold war but, in any case, a chilling of relations along these lines," said Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka.

Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said he foresees no major shift in Bush policies. "This means that we could have a very dramatic situation ahead of us, not least in Iraq," said Mr Persson, who opposed the US-led war in Iraq.