David Cameron tip-toed his way through Washington yesterday, seeking peace with President Bush and the end of a long stand-off between the White House and the Tory leadership.

He finally came face to face with Mr Bush when the President “dropped by” — in a choreographed display of casualness — on a meeting with Stephen Hadley, the National Security Adviser.

Mr Cameron later declared that they had got on well and said that they had spoken for “around 30 minutes” — albeit less than the 45 minutes billed in some newspapers.

However, soon afterwards a senior American source told The Times that the meeting had been “more like 15 to 20 minutes”. A Tory source, when asked about the discrepancy, repeatedly insisted that the discussion with Mr Bush had been “just under 30 minutes”.

Later, US officials telephoned back that “the meeting had been a decent one” and should not be overshadowed by an argument over “a few minutes here or there”.

It was the first time that a leader of the Conservative Party had met President Bush, or even set foot in Washington, since Iain Duncan Smith’s last visit in 2002. And aides on both sides were anxious to avoid the strange dispute about how long it lasted, echoing Neil Kinnock’s oft-described “humiliation” in 1987 when he received only a short audience with President Reagan.

A public feud erupted between the Tories and the White House three years ago when Michael Howard irritated President Bush after he called for Tony Blair to resign over Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Cameron, asked yesterday if the rift was over, insisted he did not “recognise the beginning”. He added that it was always useful to meet someone face to face “who you have only seen on TV”. So why had it taken more than two years for him to visit Mr Bush? “He is a very busy man,” the Conservative leader replied.

The trip had taken months of negotiations and was designed to strike a delicate balance between offering reassurance to his hosts while avoiding any impression that he was embracing a president loathed by a large majority of British voters.

Even as Mr Cameron headed to the White House at lunchtime officials on both sides were refusing to confirm publicly that the meeting would take place.

Although he has developed much of his foreign policy through photoopportunities in Africa, India and even on a glacier, on this occasion the talks were held strictly away from the cameras.

Mr Bush’s aides were said to have been annoyed this week over reports suggesting that the visit heralded a cooling of relations with Gordon Brown. And Mr Cameron afterwards was at pains yesterday to emphasise that he was “not trying to drive a wedge” between the British and American governments.

The Conservative leader had spent the morning paying his respects at the US military cemetery in Arlington before heading for the Brookings Institute, a left-leaning Washington think-tank.

He made a heavyweight speech on the Balkans, a subject chosen because there were no “particular disagreement” on it between the Government, the US Administration or the Conservative Party.

Last year he had incensed many Republicans by delivering a speech on the anniversary of 9/11, contrasting his “liberal conservatism” with “neoconservatives” and calling on the US to show more humility.

Peter Rodman, who recently left a senior post at the Pentagon to join Brookings, said yesterday: “American conservatives have a lot of concerns about Cameron. With the French and Germans becoming such close allies of the US, this is no time for a British politicians to be playing the anti- American card.” Yesterday Mr Cameron promised that Britain’s relationship with America “would remain special” if he were Prime Minister and recognised that his idea of liberal conservatism “requires particular explanation for an American audience” that might regard such terms in a “narrow party partisan” fashion.

Throughout his visit yesterday he was chaperoned by William Hague who — unlike him — has made regular trips to Washington in the past two years and observed yesterday that the Tory leader had only previously visited the US capital as a tourist.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary said that “it was true there was a bit of spat with the previous leader of the party” but claimed to be unaware of any real problem since Mr Cameron had taken over in 2005.

Diary of a feud

Feb 2004 White House allegedly tells Michael Howard he is not welcome in Washington

Aug 2004 Tories blamed for leaking details of the row

Feb 2006 William Hague predicts David Cameron will visit before end of the year

Sept 2006 Cameron causes fresh annoyance

Nov 2007 He ends five-year absence of Tory leaders from Washington, longest since advent of jet travel

Source: Times research

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