UK Secretary in DC to Mend Fences With US

The British foreign secretary arrived in Washington last night, and David Miliband now faces the unenviable task of mending a deepening rift between the Bush administration and Gordon Brown. The speed of the UK's pullback in Basra—not to mention the PM's coolness toward President Bush—has irked a White House accustomed to Bush-Blair coziness, the Telegraph reports.

Miliband, a Blairite, held a joint press conference with Condoleezza Rice last night at which he insisted that the US-UK alliance was his government's "single most important bilateral relationship." He also sought to shore up the secretary of state's insistence on pursuing a diplomatic solution in Iran—a position fast losing popularity among administration hawks. (More David Miliband stories.)