Split between US and Europe a risk to world, warns Blair

Tony Blair says Europe and America will face a moment of reckoning after the war and he warned of the danger for the world if they fail to heal the wounds inflicted by the crisis.

The Prime Minister said relations between the US and Europe would form a "significant part" of his talks with George Bush at the President's Camp David retreat tonight and tomorrow.

The two leaders will discuss the war but Mr Blair insisted the meeting was not a response to setbacks and had been planned for some time. The President and Prime Minister will also discuss the relief effort, how post-war Iraq will be rebuilt and governed and the Middle East peace process. Mr Blair will try to smooth over differences with the US, which is cautious about the United Nations playing a major role in Iraq. To underline his support for the UN, he will meet Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, in New York tomorrow. Despite the UN's failure to agree on disarming Iraq, Mr Blair expressed confidence yesterday that the world would agree on UN resolutions on the relief programme and the running of post-war Iraq.

At a press conference in Downing Street, Mr Blair did not disguise the "real tensions" between Europe and America exposed by the Iraq crisis. "There is at the end of this going to have to be a discussion and indeed a reckoning about the relations between America and Europe."

In a reference to France's desire to see Europe become an alternative power base to the US, Mr Blair said: "We have got to find a way afterwards of putting this back together on a sound basis because the alternative is this concept of rival poles of power in the world. That is a profoundly dangerous concept. It is not something that is in the interests of Europe or America."

He said most people would regard the idea of sacrificing the transatlantic alliance as "madness – because it would be absolute madness". He played down signals from Washington that the Bush administration will not give the UN a central role in Iraq, saying he spoke to President Bush every day about such issues and the US did not want "to pursue a unilateralist path without care for the rest of the world".

The Prime Minister said the war strategy was "unfolding exactly according to plan" and had achieved "a huge amount". He said: "Of course there will be accidents and tragedies and things will happen along the way. War is always like that."

Regular Iraqi forces had largely "melted away", while elements most loyal to Saddam had put up stiff resistance.