Blair and Bush bid to save coalition

Tony Blair and President George Bush are today struggling to hold the Iraq coalition together amid fresh evidence of continuing British doubts about the war.

The Prime Minister's phone conversation with Spain's new premier JosÈ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is said to have been "warm and friendly". But there was no hiding No10's dismay over Mr Zapatero's pledge to pull his country's troops out of Iraq. The Spanish contingent represents only some one per cent of total coalition forces but withdrawal by one of the three allies at the pre-war Azores summit would be a massive political blow. There were fears the move could hit plans to hand over power by the end of June. Officials in London said there would be a major effort to convince Spain's premier to do nothing "precipitate" to endanger that schedule.

Meanwhile, an ICM poll for the BBC shows 48 per cent of voters back Britain's involvement in Iraq with 43 per cent against. But only 29 per cent believe Mr Blair told the truth about WMD, with 40 per cent saying the Government overstated the danger and 22 per cent saying ministers lied outright.