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Gordon Brown tried to "move on" from the disaster in Iraq as he held his first meeting last night with President George Bush since becoming Prime Minister.
Speaking to journalists during his flight to Washington, Mr Brown remarkably made no mention of Iraq in what was seen as an attempt to distance himself from what has become known in Britain as "Blair's war."
Plans to draw down the 5,500 British troops in southern Iraq were discussed by the two leaders over dinner at the President's Camp David retreat last night.
Mr Brown was expected to reassure President Bush that he does not want to speed up plans to hand over the Basra area to Iraqi security forces.
The Bush administration does not want Britain to pull out quicker than previously agreed because that could increase the mounting domestic pressure on the withdrawal of US troops.
Simon McDonald, the Prime Minister's chief foreign policy adviser, discussed different scenarios on troop deployments with his American counterparts ahead of the Brown visit.
But Downing Street insisted he made clear there was "no change" in the Government's policy.
Although Iraq and Iran's nuclear weapons programme are likely to top the agenda at Camp David, the two leaders will trumpet a public agreement on two less controversial issues.
They will join forces to put pressure on other leaders to revive the stalled talks on a global trade agreement, and to speed up a resolution of the crisis in Darfur by redoubling pressure on the Sudanese Government.
Number 10 said Mr Brown was likely to raise the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which Britain wants closed, but he is unlikely to denounce conditions there in public.
Despite reports that Dick Cheney, the hawkish US Vice President, wants military strikes against Iran, British sources say there is no sign of any imminent military action.
In his comments during his flight, the Prime Minister invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill as he extolled the virtues of the UK-US relationship - which he described a s "the historic partnership of shared purpose that unites our country."
Describing himself as an "Atlanticist" and great admirer of American enterprise and national purpose, Mr Brown said: "It is firmly in the British national interest that we gave a strong relationship with the US, our single most important bilateral relationship."
The Prime Minister said the partnership was "rooted in something more fundamental and lasting than common interests or even a common history."
He quoted Churchill's statement about the two nations' "joint inheritance" which also included "the great principles of freedom and the rights of man."
He added: "These are the ideas that bind and give us strength to work together to face down every challenge ahead-from the danger of nuclear proliferation, global poverty, climate change, to the biggest single and immediate challenge the world has to defeat- global terrorism."
Without using the phrase "war on terror", Mr Brown praised America's "resilience and bravery" after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which showed that "while buildings can be destroyed values are indestructible."
He said the world owed the US a debt for "its leadership in this fight against international terrorism" but his official spokesman declined to say whether he saw Iraq as part of the fight.
The spokesman played down Mr Brown's omission of any reference to Iraq, saying Mr Brown always supported the decisions taken and that there was "no great code" in any of his language.
After a joint press conference with President Bush at Camp David today, Mr Brown will meet Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.
Tomorrow he will signal his support for a multilateral foreign policy by speaking to the United Nations in New York.
- INDEPENDENT
