Blair and Bush Discuss Attacks on USBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday held telephone talks with United States President George W. Bush about the attacks on New York and Washington, the Downing Street said.The two leaders spoke for around 20 minutes, an official spokesman for Blair said, without giving any details of the conversation, which took place at about noon time Britain, as a closest U.S. ally, has promised to stand " shoulder to shoulder" with the United States in responding to the attacks. The Foreign Office also made it very clear on Tuesday that Britain would offer "whatever necessary" to help the Americans to hunt down the perpetrators. Blair had on Tuesday already conferred with the leaders of Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium to "begin in earnest discussions as to how the international community can respond to today's events in New York and Washington and the threat this kind of terrorism poses to the whole international community," as a Downing Street spokesman said. But Blair had refused to indicate the extent to which Britain might back any U.S. military action following the attacks on Washington and New York. He told a press conference that "the world as a whole must be prepared to act" after the U.S. was attacked. The attack "had been made not just on the U.S., but on democracy," he said. |
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