Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair was using a dinner date with his EU partners tonight to hammer home the importance of the bloc's relationship with the US despite deep divisions over climate change.
Mr Blair arrived at an EU summit as US President Mr George W. Bush brushed aside appeals from European leaders and rejected the Kyoto climate treaty. He stressed disagreement over the environmental accord should not harm wider EU-US relations (
[ Main points of EU/US joint statement ]
).
"The prime minister will... make a passionate speech about the importance of the EU-US relationship," Blair's official spokesman told reporters as Bush joined Blair and EU leaders for a formal dinner in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
He said while Mr Blair acknowledged there were divisions over the Kyoto accord -which seeks to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming -- he believes strongly the EU and US have far more that unites them than divides them .
The United States has enraged environmentalists and provoked stern rebukes from the European Union for its decision not to ratify the Kyoto protocol.
Mr Blair's spokesman denied the British premier's defence of EU-US relations had to be passionate because there were signs the relationship was in trouble.