The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, met Pakistan's leader, General Pervez Musharraf, in London last night. Gen Musharraf was en route to New York where he will urge President Bush to halt the bombing of Afghanistan during Ramadan.
The encounter with Gen Musharraf came at the end of a difficult day which again saw Mr Blair hold court on the international stage despite a sea of domestic troubles, which claimed his Scottish First Minister and saw the DUP granted leave to challenge the Northern Ireland Secretary in the courts.
At the same time Downing Street was forced to place heavy emphasis on the British and American commitment to revive the Middle East peace process following President Bush's assertion alongside Mr Blair in Washington on Wednesday night that they would "bring al-Qaeda to justice, peace or no peace in the Middle East". Downing Street dismissed suggestions of a new mind-set in the approach to the Middle East as part of the coalition-building response to the events of September 11th, maintaining that the Bush administration was committed to doing what it could to revive the peace process.
Mr Blair's spokesman said: "The Prime Minister believes from the conversations he had in the Middle East last week that people are keen to see how they can move forward. I think everybody recognises what the difficulties are." Mr Blair, meanwhile, received a boost from King Abdullah of Jordan, who addressed members of both Houses of the British Parliament in support of continuing the allied action in Afghanistan during Ramadan.
The king told Mr Blair: "We have been particularly proud of your efforts on your travels throughout the Middle East and the Arab world to clarify the West's position that this is not a struggle between the West and Islam . . . What we are facing is those that have hijacked Islam for their own destructive ends."