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Brown retains right to withdraw troops

Camp David (U.S.): American President George Bush on Monday lavished praise on the new U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown at their first summit together, saying he was a man of principle who understood the ideological war against terrorism.

But over two days of talks held at Camp David, Mr Brown retained his right to withdraw British troops from Iraq more quickly than the Americans.

During their joint press conference on Monday, Mr Bush heaped personal praise on the British Prime Minister as a worthy leader and a man who wanted to find solutions.

Mr Brown, by contrast, hailed the relationship with America as the most important bilateral relationship for Britain, but held back from any personal praise of Mr. Bush, in what is likely to have been a calculated decision to put the bilateral relations on a more formal footing.

Mr Brown also read out a business-like lengthy statement and surprisingly described the talks simply as “full and frank”, diplomatic language for a cool relationship. The atmosphere suggested the British delegation is determined to rid themselves of the image of poodle to a Republican administration that has only 18 months to run.

At the same time, British sources stressed that Mr Brown wanted to work with Mr. Bush on the practical issues they faced, particularly world trade, Darfur and West Asia.

In what may prove a difficult issue this autumn, British Government sources stressed that Mr Brown will make his decision on British troop deployments in Iraq solely on the basis of the advice of the British military, and implicitly not in order to meet any request from the U.S. to stay alongside American troops.

Mr Bush said decisions on deployment for the U.S. and the U.K. were “results-orientated”. —

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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