Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Prime Minister Tony Blair will hold an hour of talks, their third meeting this year but first since the US-led war was declared on March 20, at Hanover airport at 1500 GMT.

It will be their last chance to discuss an issue that has divided two leaders from similar parts of the political spectrum before this week's EU summit in Athens, where Blair heads after the talks.

At the centre of the summit is a signing ceremony admitting 10 new members to the bloc, but the meeting Wednesday and Thursday is likely to be overshadowed by Iraq and the damage the issue has caused to EU unity.

Blair joined the United States in declaring war on Iraq but Schroeder has strongly opposed it, winning votes in last year's election but damaging a close friendship with Washington and losing valuable diplomatic credibility.

Since then Blair has been stretched taut between both sides of the Atlantic in a struggle to anchor the United States to the international community by urging President George W. Bush to make post-war Iraq a UN concern.

That has left the chancellor to choose between standing on principles of peace -- which are strong in Germany -- even though Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen or helping Blair reintegrate the United States.

The two leaders' margin for manouevre is small, but British anger about the anti-war nations has largely been reserved for the French, who have UN veto power, while Germans generally prefer London's attitude to Washington's.

However some of the German press has expressed some scepticism about the way Blair is portrayed as a potential bridge-builder.

"Blair's hesitant approach to the euro and unconditional support for the United States in Iraq lead one to conclude that, even under Blair's leadership, Europe is not so important for Britain," the Berliner Zeitung said Tuesday.

"The chancellor should bear that in mind when Blair explains strategy to him," the left-leaning newspaper warned.

Public signs that Schroeder would come to Blair's aid surfaced at last week's Saint Petersburg summit between Germany, France and Russia, where Schroeder was the only leader to avoid criticising the United States.

Tuesday's talks with Blair will provide Schroeder with a new opportunity to distance himself from the Berlin-Paris-Moscow "anti-war-axis".

Indications he would take a pragmatic path had already surface in early April, when he told parliament it was vital to have a viable common EU foreign and defence policy and "especially important" that Britain is closely involved.

Germany and France are the motor of European integration, Schroeder said, but "without comprehensive cooperation with Britain and other members of a common Europe, we will not be able to bear the international responsibility that is rightly expected of us".

SPACE.WIRE