The Blair Bush Project

"Improving the lives of sub-Saharan Africans would be a desirable legacy after taking a beating from Britons who accused him of blind loyalty to Bush, largely because of his support for the Iraq war. . . .

"Blair has urged that the G-8 members work toward giving 0.7% of their gross national product in foreign aid. Developed countries now average 0.24%. . . . The U.S. gives 0.16%."

William Douglas writes for Knight Ridder Newspapers that "no leader is so closely aligned with Washington as Blair, whom some in Europe dismissively call Bush's 'poodle.'

"Blair's proposal on aid for Africa is an effort to stand on his own and regain the stature he had before the Iraq war."

In an interview yesterday, Blair tried to diminish expectations but exude optimism all at the same time.

Ben Hall and James Blitz write in the Financial Times: "Tony Blair has given up trying to persuade the Bush administration to back Gordon Brown's scheme to double aid to Africa by tapping the capital markets.

"The prime minister said the chancellor's idea for an international finance facility, allowing governments to spend future aid money now, was one of 'certain things we know they are not going to do, that we are not asking them to do'. . . .

"However, Mr Blair is still hoping for a breakthrough on climate change under Britain's G8 presidency and will use his first in-depth discussion on the subject with President George W. Bush today to urge further US action.

"Talking to the Financial Times as he prepared to fly to Washington, Mr Blair conceded he had been 'very ambitious' to seek an international consensus on climate change given the US rejection of limits to its greenhouse gas emissions. But Mr Blair believes there is more common ground between Americans and Europeans than there appears."

Beth Gardiner writes for the Associated Press, however, that the global warming issue -- even more than African aid -- may strain relations between the two leaders. "The president opposes the Kyoto Protocol, and his administration questions scientists' views that man-made pollutants are causing temperatures to rise."

CNN reports on some possibly unhelpful comments coming from Blair's finance minister, Gordon Brown, who is not only the champion of the African aid plan, but Blair's sometimes rival and likely successor.

"This is not a time for timidity, nor is it a time to fear reaching too high," Brown said last week.