The poodle bites

Blair is calling in his chits at Davos:

"The underlying features of the speech seem to be these," Mr. Blair said, acting as he has in the past as an interpreter of American motives to a skeptical Europe. "America accepts that terrorism cannot be defeated by military might alone. The more people live under democracy, with human liberty intact, the less inclined they or their states will be to indulge terrorism or to engage in it.

"By its very nature, such a mission cannot be accomplished alone," added Mr. Blair, who has been the closest ally of Mr. Bush in the Iraq war.

"No one could say the inauguration speech was lacking in idealism.

"However if America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too."

Blair said that what people wanted was "not for America to concede, but to engage."

"It is absurd to choose between an agenda focusing on terrorism and one on global poverty, especially as, in part at least, they are linked," he added.