European leaders must face up to the "new reality" of George W. Bush's re-election as US president after four years of rancour over Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday. Speaking at a European Union summit, Blair said he was not pointing fingers at any one country, after France and Germany led EU opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.
"What I'm really trying to say is, we've got to move on, there's a new reality, so let's work with that reality," he told reporters after meeting Iraqi interim leader Iyad Allawi before the summit's second day.
"We've a situation now where President Bush has been re-elected," Blair said.
"He's now there for the next four years and my sense just in talking to European leaders here overnight is that people do understand this is the reality, and it's important that we work with the Americans and of course with the Iraqi government to bring that stability to Iraq."
In an interview with The Times newspaper published Friday, Blair said some in Europe "are in a sort of state of denial" over the reality of Bush's second term. But he predicted they will soon be in a "more receptive mood".
"It is important that America listens to the rest of the world too. But the fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen to elect him," he told The Times.
Blair vowed he would take his role as a bridge between the two continents even more seriously than before, saying Britain is "uniquely placed" because of its "immensely strong" alliance with the United States.
The Middle East peace process, the Iraqi elections in January, Iran, Afghanistan and even climate change will be the key areas where progress must be made, he was quoted as saying. Blair said he went to bed early Tuesday night thinking that Senator John Kerry had won, on the basis of the early exit polls, and woke up to find that Bush had been re-elected, according to The Times.
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