\WASHINGTON, 18 April 2004 — US President George W. Bush and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, each increasingly at odds with their respective publics over Iraq, put on a show of joint resolve Friday, saying they remained committed to a June 30 deadline for a transfer of power.

The united front extended to the Middle East conflict. Despite the potential political peril to Blair, and indications of a chill in relations between Britain and the US, the prime minister re-affirmed his support for Washington’s seismic policy shift this week on Jewish settlements.

For Blair and Bush Friday, there was no sign of wavering on either front, and no turning back, even at a time when the decision to go to war on Iraq has become a political liability for the two leaders.

After the bloodiest fortnight in Iraq since the invasion, Blair and Bush had hoped to redirect attention of their respective publics to the future: the handover of power to a form of Iraqi government.

But with the handover date now less than 80 days away, and no firm indications yet on what entity will emerge to govern Iraq, it was difficult to sustain the vision laid out by the two leaders Friday of a liberated and democratic Iraq. Instead, they were steadily dragged back to the past.

Bush was asked whether he instructed the Pentagon to draw up an invasion plan for Iraq in November 2001, just as the campaign in Afghanistan was getting under way.

Blair was called on to explain his support for a new Middle East policy from Washington which has outraged Arab and European opinion for being biased toward Israel’s Ariel Sharon.

The president, obviously annoyed, gazed into the distance before answering, explaining he could not remember exact dates, but that on Sept. 15, 2001 “I sat down with my national security team to discuss the response, and the subject of Iraq came up. And I said as plainly as I possibly could: ‘We’ll focus on Afghanistan, that’s where we will focus.” Both men acknowledged the escalating violence of the last week, but Blair argued it was the work of reactionaries determined to stop Iraq from becoming a free and democratic state.

“Our task is to take this state and turn it into a democracy, stable and prosperous, a symbol of hope to its own people and throughout the whole of the Middle East,” he said.

Bush and Blair said they were resolute in sticking to the June 30 deadline for a transfer of power to an Iraqi interim authority.

Bush also signaled that the US was eager for greater United Nations involvement, saying he welcomed the proposals presented by the special envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi. His plan envisages a transitional authority to run Iraq until elections are held in January 2005.

The new readiness to involve the UN appeared to offer some consolation for Blair who has been criticized by Robin Cook and other Labour figures for his readiness to support Bush in Iraq, and the Middle East, in the face of international opposition.

In his comments Friday, Blair said the UN would have a “central role” in moving toward the power transition, and hoped there would be a new Security Council resolution over Iraq.

But the main pre-occupation of both men was conveying to their own people — as well as to the Arab world — that Britain and the US will not be driven by the last weeks of chaos and kidnappings to abandon Iraq, or to deviate from the plan to transfer power.

“The prime minister and I have made our choice. Iraq will be free,” Bush said. “We will not waver in the face of fear and intimidation.”

The two men also insisted that they would not abandon America’s road map for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Friday’s summit arrived two days after a visit to Washington by the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who announced a plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in Gaza, and was awarded with a statement from Bush recognizing Jewish settlements on occupied lands in the West Bank.

Blair insisted the Gaza agreement did not rule out future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Instead, Blair claimed that Sharon’s plan, which would consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank, presented an opportunity for the Palestinians, and that the international community would be on hand to invest in the reconstruction of Gaza.