The stunning military successes over the weekend and Monday, with US troops seizing three presidential palaces in central Baghdad and British troops having basically taken over Iraq's second city Basra, made it certain that rebuilding Iraq after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be a major theme for the summit in Northern Ireland.

Thousands of anti-war protesters were expected to demonstrate later Monday at Hillsborough Castle, the site south of Belfast where the American and British leaders were to meet.

Their summit will be the third in as many weeks.

They met March 16 in the Azores just four days before launching the war without United Nations approval and in defiance of key allies France and Germany and then again on March 27 at Bush's Camp David retreat outside Washington, when Iraqi resistance was surprisingly strong.

That resistance was seen to be crumbling Monday.

In Moscow, US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice met Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, one day after five Russian diplomats were wounded when a convoy evacuating them from Baghdad came under fire, possibly from US troops, Interfax reported.

A US official in Washington, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Sunday Rice would also discuss the shooting incident with Russian President Vladimir Putin before travelling on to meet up with Bush in Northern Ireland on Monday or Tuesday.

Bush and Blair differ over the role the United Nations should play in administering and rebuilding Iraq after the fall of the Saddam regime.

Washington appears to have decided to sideline the United Nations as much as possible from the process, instead favoring a provisional military administrator attached to the Pentagon until an interim administration trusted by the Iraqis can be established.

But Blair, like the French and German leaders, wants the United Nations to play a central role.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday the US military may have to run Iraq for more than six months after the war has finished before it hands over to an Iraqi authority.

Another burning subject to be discussed Monday which is also crucial to the post-Saddam era is the "road map" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Bush administration would like to see new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas, considered a counterweight to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, formally installed before agreeing to release the road map, but Britain wants the road map published immediately.

Bush and Blair will be meeting during the week marking the fifth anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement for Northern Ireland.

The agreement was signed in April 1988 by the British government, Catholics who want the province to join the Republic of Ireland and Protestants who want it to remain part of Britain.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who will attend the summit, have set Thursday as their deadline for restoring devolution in the province.

SPACE.WIRE