Mr Tony Blair was leading a united front of European leaders at Downing Street last night as he held a summit on the "steady progress" of military action in Afghanistan.
As the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, gave an upbeat assessment of the campaign saying the Taliban were "not really functioning as a government," Mr Blair once again embarked on a crucial diplomatic offensive ahead of talks in Washington on Wednesday with President Bush.
The leaders of the key military powers in Europe - the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, and the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schr÷der - were originally thought to be the only countries attending the London talks.
But perhaps mindful of Europe's indignation last month when Mr Blair confined his detailed discussions about the military campaign to the French and German leaders on the fringe of an EU summit in Belgium, the leaders of Spain, Italy, Belgium and the EU's representative for foreign and security affairs, Mr Javier Solana, were also included.
Mr Blair was also "swapping notes" with the leaders on his attempts to re-invigorate the Middle East peace process. And with Britain dismissing as "desperate fantasy" Osama bin Laden's statement that any Muslim states co-operating with the United Nations were "infidels", the Prime Minister was keen to restate the message that military action had broad-based support.
While Mr Blair prepared to brief the European leaders, the Conservative leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith suggested the US and Britain should move swiftly and deploy ground troops in Afghanistan.
"The objective is to get rid of Taliban because Taliban will stop us getting to al Qaeda and bin Laden and that means ultimately the deployment of ground troops," he told BBC's On the Record programme. "We need to be certain that that is going to happen." Mr Duncan Smith said he believed a "substantial build up" could already be taking place.