Nevertheless, the Prime Minister is expected to emphasise his resolve to back Mr Bush, warning there is “a real danger that we forget the lessons of 11 September”.. They sold out of summit souvenirs of Tony Blair and George Bush at the Red Bull store in the President’s home town of Crawford, Texas. Souvenir mugs of the two leaders were being snapped up at $9 a piece and there was brisk trade in T-shirts with the slogan “The British are Coming”. The image of the Cowboy President saying “Howdy” to the Limey PM while plotting a crazy war in the Middle East was not dispelled by the meeting. Mr Bush arrived at the wheel of a white pick-up truck with his wife Laura to collect Mr Blair from the helipad at his ranch.Mr Blair arrived in the Presidential chopper, Marine One, with Condoleeza Rice, the President’s national security adviser, still wearing the black tie and the dark suit he had worn for the Queen Mother’s lying in state ceremony. Mr Bush wore cowboy boots, jeans, and a short rancher’s jacket in dark brown cow hide.The press covering the event were told to look out for snakes in the grass, and they meant it.

After the neighbourly photo call, Mr Bush got back in his truck, and drove the Prime Minister off to his ranch for dinner and a fireside chat after dinner.The menu was not disclosed but ham and beans around the camp fire would not have been out of place.The White House team were holed up in the Hilton in nearby Waco. Then it was back to the ranch for lunch with the Bushes, and Cherie, who had arrived with the younger Blair children, Kathryn and Leo, after a week’s holiday in Miami.They would have had trouble finding a table in town. Crawford has only one restaurant – the Coffee Station, which has become a favourite with the President’s security men. And like most restaurants in this corner of the Bible Belt, it does not serve alcohol. The town is also dry, which should keep the children out of trouble.Crawford appeared to be taking the arrival of the Prime Minister and his family in its stride.

Before this, the biggest news on the town’s web site was the arrival of a new bank which a businessman from Waco is promising to open on a vacant lot. The most arresting photograph on the site is a picture of the Crawford town water tank.Mr Blair was shown a different Crawford in the privacy of the Bush ranch. He was taken on a walk to see the wide open spaces of the prairie, and the Texan flowers, the Blue Bonnets, that are blooming everywhere in the Spring rain.Mr Blair today will visit the George Bush Senior library in town to deliver a tough speech attacking the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and supporting the US President As Mr Bush would say, that’s right neighbourly of him.. In the worst day of fighting for more than a week, Palestinian fighters claimed as many as 30 Palestinians had been killed in a refugee camp in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin yesterday.

The Israeli army said “very close combat” was taking place in the area, and that two of its soldiers had been killed in fighting overnight It was impossible to verify the claims of either side. It was impossible to verify the claims of either side.Amid protests from across the world, Israel yesterday continued to defy George Bush’s call to pull its troops out of Palestinian towns in the West Bank, in the worst day of fighting yet The most serious clashes yesterday were in Jenin and Nablus. In Jenin, the one thing that everyone seemed to agree on was that people were dying inside the refugee camp.The crowded narrow streets of the camp are usually home to more than 9,000 people. The Israeli army has already occupied Jenin city, but Palestinian fighters have been holding out inside the camp, and the Israeli army said a full-scale assault was under way. There were reports that gunmen were handing out explosives to residents.”Nobody works as Fatah or Hamas, everybody works together,” Jamal Abu al-Haija, a local Hamas leader, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press agency. “All the factions have distributed explosive belts and hand grenades to the people of the camp to defend themselves.” Locals in Jenin said no one has been allowed to leave the camp, and that women and children are trapped in the midst of the Israeli assault.The commander of Israeli forces in Jenin, Brigadier Eyal Shlein, told Israeli radio: “Yes, it is a tightly packed refugee camp. I am sure they do not like it, and I imagine that there are injuries.