Bush will be in Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday, the prime minister's office Downing Street said in London Friday.

The two leaders will also discuss the situation in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell will also go on the trip, which comes just before the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, to be marked on April 10th, a US official said.

"Obviously, the focus will be Northern Ireland but they'll also be talking about the war and the Middle East. Blair is really keen to get the roadmap out" on peace in the Middle East, said the official, who asked not to be named.

White House officials said the President hoped his visit would help the Northern Ireland peace process at a pivotal time.

The Downing Street spokesman said Mr Bush and Mr Blair would also discuss "how best to move forward the Middle East peace process".

"The President and the Prime Minister have discussed Northern Ireland on several occasions," the spokesman said.

"It is an example of how peace can be taken forward in seemingly impossible situations. We want that spirit applied to the Middle East peace process," the spokesman said.

It will be Bush and Blair's third summit in recent weeks, following a gathering in the Azores ahead of the outbreak of the Iraq War March 20 and last week's discussions in Camp David in the United States.

A Downing Street spokesman said the two leaders had "found the meetings in the Azores and Camp David very helpful in the development of our strategy on the military, diplomatic and humanitarian fronts."

Ireland Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will also attend the summit.

The three leaders will meet with leaders of Northern Ireland's main Protestant party the Ulster Unionists, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, Sinn Fein, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the main Roman Catholic party in the province, in order to get the Northern Ireland peace process back on track.

Blair and Ahern are due to launch make-or-break proposals for the implementation of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, that led to power sharing between Catholics and Protestants.

"It is an important week in the Northern Ireland peace process," the Downing street spokesman said.

In a major blow to the peace process, Britain suspended the Belfast-based assembly in October and put Northern Ireland back under direct rule from London to avert a threatened walk-out by Protestant unionists that would have triggered the collapse of the institutions.

A key demand by unionists before they agree to return to power-sharing with Catholics is that the IRA gives up its weapons for good.

Meanwhile, republicans have been seeking police reform and the scaling back of the British army presence in Northern Ireland.

SPACE.WIRE