When he eventually walks into the White House Friday as the first foreign leader to meet the re-elected president, Blair will cement a reputation as Bush's closest ally but risk further charges back home he is a US "poodle."

Keeping in mind his own Labour Party's prospects at elections expected early next year, analysts said, Blair will try to win a US determination to rescue the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from four years of violence.

Blair's official spokesman told reporters earlier in the week that the government expects "a clear signal of intent" for reviving the peace process to emerge from the Washington summit.

"I will do everything I can to make sure that this peace process becomes reinvigorated," Blair told parliament on Monday, adding such efforts would be raised during his talks in Washington.

Blair has for 18 months pledged to make the revival of the peace process a personal priority. He has also tried to persuade Bush to do more to combat global warming since Washington rejected the Kyoto protocol.

Analysts said while fresh opportunities may emerge with the absence of the now critically ill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat -- whom the United States and Israel stopped dealing with several years ago as a peace partner -- they wondered how much Bush would tip toward Blair.

John Kampfner, a Blair biographer and political journalist, said Blair had "always hoped he had got through to the president," and Bush has always "politely heard" Blair's case, but done little.

The Americans understand that Blair's "unflinching" loyalty to Bush on Iraq has "brought no dividends and only political flak," but they will also put their own support for Israel into the balance, he said.

"Whatever (Blair) might bring home may only be wafer thin," Kampfner warned.

Rosemary Hollis of the Chatham House think tank in London said "Blair will be satisfied for now with a reinvigorated process that everybody can say is designed to lead to a two-state solution.

"But I suspect they're not going to go into any details on exactly what that means on the map," Hollis said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is trying to push through his unilateral plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, but Palestinians fear he will go little further, retaining most of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Hollis said a revival of the peace process depends on assuring Palestinians that the Gaza withdrawal is linked to the future of the West Bank and that the United States and Israel will support a caretaker Palestinian leadership that is seen as legitimate.

She said the United States and Israel will have to do much more this time to support a "moderate" like Abu Mazen, the former prime minister who brokered a truce with radical Palestinian factions but failed to win much in return from the Israelis.

"If Blair had any sense, he will be talking about what it is exactly that they will get from the Israelis to make the Palestinian situation more viable," she said.

Under the 2003 roadmap for a two-state solution endorsed by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the Palestinians must stop terror attacks and Israel must take confidence building steps, such as dismantling settlements.

But Hollis was not overly optimistic. "I'm torn between the basics that I think are necessary for this conversation in Washington and what I think will actually take place," Hollis said.

Judith Kipper, of the US think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, said the key in a post-Arafat era would be whether his successors seriously pursued long-demanded reforms within the Palestinian camp.

Kipper expressed doubt whether Sharon or a second Bush administration, more preoccupied with Iraq, Iran and North Korea, would move aggressively towards a Middle East peace deal.

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