WASHINGTON — President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Friday to discuss the deteriorating Mideast crisis, where Israelis and Hezbollah guerrillas are waging war, amid indications Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the region.
Bush and Blair, close partners on Iraq, are teamed up once more against much of the world in their refusal to criticize Israel's offensive in southern Lebanon or call for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire.
Bush seemed likely to announce at their joint East Room appearance later Friday that Rice would resume her onsite diplomacy this weekend, said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the president.
Bush and Blair came together at the White House as consultations continue on the makeup and mandate of a possible international peacekeeping force to stabilize the more than 2-week-old situation and supplement the Lebanese army. A senior State Department aide was meeting with European Union officials in Brussels and there were plans for talks at the United Nations as well.
Speaking aboard Blair's plane as it flew to Washington, the prime minister's spokesman said Blair would seek a U.N. resolution to resolve the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. Britain hoped a U.N. resolution could be in place by next week.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said Bush also wants a U.N. resolution next week. But he expressed doubt that world leaders could come together on wording by then. The United States has resisted an immediate cease-fire, insisting that any solution address long-standing regional disputes, particularly the call contained in a 2004 U.N. Security Council resolution that Lebanese militias such as Hezbollah be disarmed — something the Lebanese government has been unable and unwilling to do.
"It's all about getting the right conditions for that U.N. resolution," Snow said.
The White House spokesman suggested that one sensitive piece of the ongoing negotiations is which country would offer the resolution, to make it more likely to influence Hezbollah. He refused to get into any details of what was being considered.
"To being talking about ongoing negotiations in some ways could jeopardize some of the things that are going on," Snow said.
U.S. officials say European troops would likely dominate any international peacekeeping force.
"I don't anticipate American combat power, combat forces, being used in this force," Rice told reporters Thursday while traveling to Malaysia for an Asian regional conference.
Snow said it was likely Bush and Blair would also discuss humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Lebanon.
With Israel signaling it is settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, Bush had been suggesting virtually from the outset that he would support the offensive for as long as it takes to cripple the Shiite Muslim militant group. The fighting began after Hezbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers. Defying some members of his own parliament, Blair has insisted that Hezbollah must first free the soldiers and stop firing rockets into Israel, a similar position to that taken by Bush.
Israel's punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes has killed an estimated 600 Lebanese. More than 50 Israelis have died, most of them soldiers.
Many countries in Europe and the Middle East are calling for an immediate cease-fire and have deplored the impact of Israel's campaign on Lebanon. The gap between the United States and Britain and other nations has intensified some of the diplomatic strains that have existed since Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 with Blair as one of his chief international backers.
Blair came to Washington for the second time in two months politically weakened, both by Iraq and by domestic woes in Britain.
His close alliance with Bush has made him the subject of ridicule. Blair has responded to growing calls from inside his own party to step down by saying it is too soon. But he has promised to give up the prime minister's post before the next national elections, expected by 2009.
Most recently, Blair's government has had to deal with allegations that two U.S.-chartered planes carrying missiles to Israel stopped to refuel at a Scottish airport without filing the proper paperwork for hazardous materials. The missile dispute has added to questions about what Britain gets for its "special relationship" with the United States.
And at the Group of Eight summit of world powers in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bush and Blair had an undignified luncheon chat unaware that a microphone was live. Bush's "Yo, Blair!" greeting has dogged the British leader.
From Washington, Blair was to fly to California for meetings with business leaders.
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Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story from London.