US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will seek to emphasise the positive when they meet today despite postwar chaos and intelligence failures in Iraq.
Their White House meeting will be the first since Mr Blair came under intense attack at home for the US-British failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction.
As Mr Blair continues to face questions about weapons of mass destruction, Mr Bush has been condemned by Democrats over the almost daily deaths of US soldiers under guerrilla attack in Iraq and his unsubstantiated allegation that Saddam sought uranium from Africa.
Mr Sean McCormack, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the two leaders would discuss Iraq, the Middle East, US-European relations and the war on terrorism.
"They will discuss all the progress that has been made in freeing more than 20 million people from a brutal dictator and putting them on the path to controlling their own destiny," he said.
Mr Blair will address a joint session of Congress before his White House visit. He will then fly to Asia for talks in Japan, South Korea and China.
Mr Bush so far appears to be in a stronger political situation at home than Mr Blair. His job approval ratings are still over 50 per cent, but they are down from the 60 per cent level he enjoyed recently. Pollsters blame the decline on the steady stream of US casualties in Iraq.