Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi met Sunday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, for talks likely to be dominated by the need to improve security before Iraq's January elections. In an interview to be aired Sunday on the U.S. television network ABC, Allawi insisted he was committed to the Jan. 31 date. "We are doing our best and we are going to stick to the date, as far as we are concerned, the Iraqis," he said, according to a transcript released in advance. "We are four months away. And by four months, a lot of things will change. And they will change in a positive way." Blair said Saturday that Iraq was "the very crucible of the fight against terrorism, against groups that are prepared to kill, or take hostages, or do whatever they can in order to prevent Iraq becoming a stable, democratic country." Allawi is in London en route to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
