With the fall of Baghdad looking increasingly imminent, the two leaders will meet in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday for their third face-to-face meeting in less than a month to take stock of the Iraq war.

But the fitful Northern Ireland peace process will also come up at the snap summit that will, importantly, be taking place taking place just before Thursday's fifth anniversary of the Good Friday peace accords.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, his partner in getting bickering Protestant and Catholic politicians to work together, have set Thursday as their deadline for restoring devolution in the province.

By travelling to Belfast at this point in time, Bush will be in a prime position to get the peace process back on track, and thus pay back a huge favor to Blair, his staunchest ally in the showdown with Saddam Hussein.

"Who would have believed, in their wildest dreams, that President George W. Bush would find time to visit Northern Ireland in the middle of the war in Iraq?" the Belfast Telegraph newspaper said Saturday.

"It must rank as one of the most symbolic events in recent Irish history, demanding a positive response from all our politicians," it said in an editorial.

For Bush, it will be his first experience with the Northern Ireland conflict, in contrast to his predecessor Bill Clinton, who took a keen personal interest in making the Good Friday accords a success.

For Blair, the summit will be a long-awaited opportunity to refocus on a major domestic problem that he had been hard-pressed to give full attention to, given the drawn-out run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Informed sources in Belfast said the idea of a summit in Northern Ireland -- for 30 years the scene of post-war Europe's longest-running sectarian conflict -- cropped up after Bush and Blair last met on March 26 at the president's country retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

Plans call for the two men, who will be meeting at Hillsborough Castle, to tackle Iraq almost as soon as Bush arrives late Monday, with more discussions on the war the following day.

Their attention will swing to Northern Ireland later Tuesday, when they will be joined first by Ahern, then later by the province's three main political leaders: Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, Ulster Unionist chief David Trimble, and Mark Durkan of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

Though the peace process has been snagged since October, sources said Bush and Blair want to hold up Northern Ireland as an example for reconciliation in the Middle East.

"Northern Ireland is perceived to be a tableau of reasonable success at conflict resolution" that could serve as a template in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, one analyst said.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive was suspended on October 14 amid a nasty row over allegations of Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity, including alleged spying within the Northern Ireland Office.

Since then, Trimble, the province's chief minister, has been insisting an iron-clad commitment from the IRA -- which is observing a ceasefire -- that it will renounce armed conflict and give up its guns and explosives.

On the other hand, Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, is demanding some real progress on such details as the reform of Northern Ireland's police force, traditionally dominated by Protestants, and a reduction of British military forces in the province.

SPACE.WIRE