Blair meets with 'good friend' Schroeder

Now that diplomacy in the West has effectively entered into the post-conflict cycle, Prime Minister Tony Blair said today that relations between the UK and Germany "remain extremely strong", despite differences before the conflict in Iraq began.

Papering over the cracks in Anglo-German relations began last night in Hanover, and today Mr Blair told a press conference that his German counterpart Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a "good friend".

Mr Blair added: "And of course in respect of Europe and European cooperation, our ties and our working together are very strong, they will remain so, and I have no doubt at all that we should continue to work together for a Europe of security and of prosperity in the future. And of course there was strong agreement on the importance of the transatlantic alliance and the partnership between Europe and America."

Chancellor Schroeder was also warm in his assessment of British-German relations, saying they were of an "excellent quality". More serious for the Germans has been its falling out with the US administration over the Iraq conflict – and Mr Schroeder moved to rebuild bridges saying the international situation now needs "intact, healthy transatlantic relations". He added that Germany would "jointly be working towards" better relations in the future.

However, it will take much more remove the ill-feeling plainly evident during Rumsfeld's mission to Europe in the build-up to war. But despite Germany's anti-war stance, Mr Schroeder said that whenever a dictatorship goes, it is a "gain for mankind in general".

The disaffection caused by the Iraq war between the US and "old Europe" was also played out at a meeting of the World Bank earlier this week, when the Germans refused a call by the US to write off billions of dollars of debts owed by Iraq.

But today Mr Schroeder said that whatever the difference of opinion might have been to begin with, it was "very important that the problems are now going to be solved after the regime has gone down and we must make sure that the problems are solved in a democratic form and way".

He stressed Germany's view that the UN should control the reconstruction of war blighted country, and the Alliance must "nail down the exact details" of how that would be progressed.

On the role of the UN, Mr Blair said that there was agreement in principle the United Nations must have "a key role".

The meeting also centred on "joint tasks" ahead in Europe, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the role of the UN in Iraq. The UN said the chancellor must decide the "right type of framework" to make sure that humanitarian aid is distributed effectively to the people in Iraq.

(GMcG)