Diplomacy wins and influences friends for Blair

War on terrorism: Prime Minister's Tour

Tony Blair came as close to Osama bin Laden as the RAF would allow yesterday when he swept into Pakistan on the latter stage of his mission to right the world's wrongs.

Building on the grand ambition of his speech to the Labour Party conference this week, the Prime Minister's New World Order was made flesh as he embarked on a 5,000-mile odyssey taking in Moscow and Islamabad.

Mr Blair's VC10 was forced to make a hefty detour to avoid Afghan airspace, and instead took in Kazakhstan and China, which at least allowed the Prime Minister to gaze out over the spectacular peaks of the Himalayas.

No one has talked more frequently than Mr Blair about the need to stand "shoulder to shoulder'' with Britain's allies but he treated his own rhetoric all too literally on a trip that saw him brush jackets with President Vladimir Putin and General Pervez Musharraf.

One may have been an unelected military type and the other a former KGB chief, but in the rapidly changing world post 11 September, both are seen as indispensable partners in the war on terrorism.

Yet although he may have a new reputation as strong man, Mr Blair was careful to observe the diplomatic niceties that ranged from downing vodka with the Russian President to eating curry with his Pakistani counterpart.

In Moscow, the Prime Minister treated President Putin to his own "Blair hug'' as the two men "broadened and deepened'' their personal and political relationship, in the diplomatic jargon.

After a joint press conference in Catherine the Great Hall, Mr Putin made the rare gesture of inviting Mr Blair back to his place, his private dacha in Gorky.

The two leaders talked over a supper of Russian stew, before going off for a "walk in the woods'' with the Presidential labrador and then rounded off the evening with a gentlemanly game of snooker.

Mr Blair had the decency to tell reporters that the outcome of the contest was "classified information", but aides later revealed that British skill and guile had won the day.

Within hours, Mr Blair was on his way to Islamabad, for a swift visit and was greeted by an airport bristling with helicopters, troops and other military activity. He held a 90-minute meeting with the Pakistani President at what used to be the Prime Minister's official residence before the bloodless coup in 1999.

At the official dinner, Mr Blair's entourage sought to follow up the hard talk with informal chat. Just to make sure of the general's support, his former Paras pal, Lord Guthrie, the former Chief of Defence, was seated alongside him.

And then Mr Blair had to prepare for the next round of this trip, to India.