Bush and Blair try to end dispute over UN, saying it will play vital post-war role

Tony Blair and George Bush ended a two-day summit in Northern Ireland yesterday, declaring themselves at one on UN involvement in post-war Iraq and saying the organisation would have "a vital role".

The two leaders pressed the Northern Ireland parties for an early breakthrough, saying a historic opportunity would be offered by the publication of a joint London-Dublin document tomorrow.

The summit, which also covered the Middle East, was the third meeting between the two men in three weeks. They stressed the closeness of Anglo-American relations, with Downing Street hoping that the perception of differences over the UN could be laid to rest.

President Bush, asked whether Saddam Hussein had been killed in an Allied air strike, replied: "I don't know if he survived. The only thing I know is he is losing power." Echoing this, Mr Blair said: "In all parts of the country our power is strengthening, the regime is weakening and Iraqi people are turning towards us. Anyone who has seen the joy on the faces of people in Basra knows that this was indeed a war of liberation, not of conquest."

The summit, which was also attended by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, appeared to be largely informal, with Mr Blair and Mr Bush dining together and walking in the grounds of Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast. Anti-war protesters were kept well away from the castle by police cordons using dozens of armoured vehicles.

The two leaders were joined by Bertie Ahern, the Taois-each, for brief meetings with major Northern Ireland parties including Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists. The three leaders later issued a joint statement declaring: "The break with paramilitarism in all its past forms must be complete and irrevocable."

London, Dublin and Washington hope that a peace process breakthrough will follow the document to be released tomorrow. It will map out proposals on demilitarisation, policing, equality and other issues, in the expectation that the IRA will respond with a big move on weaponry. Although many harbour high hopes, both the Government and Sinn Fein cautioned that there was "no done deal".

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, said he had had frank discussions with Mr Bush, although there had been no discussion of the "acts of completion" that London and Dublin are pressing for.

David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, said that in the talks with Mr Bush there had been "general encouragement and exhortation".

Mr Bush was evasive when asked to define the vital role of the UN. He would speak only of the UN engaging in humanitarian work, "suggesting" people to staff the interim authority and helping Iraq "progress".

The joint statement pledged to seek Security Council resolutions to affirm Iraq's territorial integrity, ensure aid delivery and endorse an appropriate post-conflict administration. The two leaders also said that Iraqi oil would be "protected as the patrimony of the people of Iraq."

Shashi Tharoor, a UN under-secretary general, warned Britain and America against appearing as "people dividing up the spoils of a conquest". In the most outspoken comments by the UN to date, Mr Tharoor said a US-led administration would lack legitimacy. It would have serious problems in selling oil or other Iraqi exports as it would lack legal title. "The UN has no desire whatsoever to see Iraq as some sort of treasure chest to be divvied up," he told Today on BBC Radio 4.

America and Britain "need to come to the Security Council to get the backing of international law for anything more ambitious than merely being an occupying power". The UN was not keen to take on the "poisoned chalice" of running Iraq. He said the UN was not "a private corporation that needs to increase its market share. We have quite enough to do elsewhere in the world."

Now the war was reality, any interim Iraqi authority would need UN authorisation, Mr Tharoor said. If America went ahead without Security Council backing, there would be "real difficulty in the extent to which other countries would be prepared to recognise this group as anything other than an offshoot or a branch of the military occupation in Iraq".