‘Yo, Blair!’

MOSCOW (The Independent) July 18 —

CNN: British newspapers saw Blair as having more reason than Bush for embarrasment.

Bush: Yeah. (Mr Blair is trying to push the idea of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. That ‘yeah’ does not sound like a wholehearted agreement)

Blair: I don’t know what you guys have talked about, but as I say I am perfectly happy to try and see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral. (Meaning: ‘Please, George, let me go to the Middle East and be a world statesman’)

Bush: I think Condi is going to go pretty soon. (Meaning: ‘No’)

Blair: But that’s, that’s, that’s all that matters. But if you… you see it will take some time to get that together. (Meaning: ‘Oh well, all right, if you don’t want me to. Just a thought’)

Bush: Yeah, yeah.

Blair: But at least it gives people…

Bush: It’s a process, I agree. I told her your offer to… (Meaning: ‘Drop it. You’re not going.’)

Blair: Well… it’s only if I mean… you know. If she’s got a…, or if she needs the ground prepared as it were… Because obviously if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk.

Bush: You see, the … thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over. (Mr Bush is expressing his belief that Syria is pulling Hizbollah’s strings, while Mr Blair is hinting the Syrians might be up to no good as well)

This transcript is all over Europe today!