Blair set for final Bush talks

Prime Minister Tony Blair is to have his last face-to-face talks with US President George Bush at his farewell G8 summit.

The two leaders will meet over breakfast for a conversation dominated by the West's relations with Russia and the prospects for a deal on climate change and Africa at the gathering of world leaders in Heiligendamm on Germany's Baltic Coast.

Mr Bush has offered to cooperate with Russia on his plans for a defensive missile shield despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to turn his missiles on Europe if the plan goes ahead.

And Mr Blair is urging the Russian leader to extradite ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy to London to face charges relating to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which Mr Putin has so far blocked.

But the talks will also be the venue for President Bush to bid farewell to the ally who has been his staunchest supporter in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan since the terrorist outrage of September 11 2001.

At their final White House meeting a few weeks ago, Mr Bush rounded on reporters criticising the Premier saying they wanted to "tap dance" on his political grave.

He is likely to pay a similar tribute to Mr Blair at the meeting, with the Prime Minister also hailing the President's latest offer of a global deal on climate change.

That offer, made last week, was controversial with campaigners claiming it was yet another way of America opting out of an international deal to cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

But Mr Blair, in his global international swansong, is determined to tie the US into a protocol governed by the United Nations that can be agreed - at least in outline - by world leaders during their two-day summit.

After the talks' formal opening, Mr Blair will also have a brief private session with new French President Nicolas Sarkozy where the two will discuss not only Africa and global warming but bilateral issues such as new fears of economic refugees using France as a staging post to enter Britain.