Analysis: U.S.-U.K. differences deepen

Roland Flamini, Chief International Correspondent for UPI:

Immediately after President George Bush's re-election Prime Minister Tony Blair said he expected the president to pursue a more "consensual" foreign policy in his second term. Now the British Labor Party prime minister is engaged in trying to make sure his theory was right. ... What the Bush administration wants is not entirely clear. ...

With an election looming in the early summer, Blair is trying to reassure the rebellious left wing of the party that Britain will not be dragged into any more armed interventions by the Bush administration.

His hopes of reaping some political benefit from Britain's support of the United States in Iraq are mainly pinned on being able to persuade the Bush administration to get serious about rekindling the Middle East process. ...

In June 2005, Britain assumes the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, and it is in Blair's interest to demonstrate his credentials as a peacemaker as well as a wartime prime minister.

Every EU country tends to concentrate its presidency on advancing a major issue. The word is that a re-elected Blair would want to make a lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with coordinated American and EU efforts as the centerpiece.

On the U.S. side, Washington objects to the EU's plan -- which Britain supports -- to lift the arms embargo against China. More

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