Against a backdrop of anti-war protests, U.S. President Bush and Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair will map out Iraq's future on Thursday and could strike a deal on British "enemy combatants" held by the United States.

Bush starts his day with a tour of Westminster Abbey - the burial place of kings, statesmen, warriors and poets, presenting a colorful pageant of British history.

He then meets families of British soldiers who were killed in the U.S.-led war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Anti-war protesters, who have warmed up with limited marches in central London over the past two days, vowed to stage their biggest anti-Bush demonstrations on Thursday, with estimates of up to 100,000 people taking to London's streets.

About 600 protesters marched on Wednesday. Some poured red dye into a Trafalgar Square fountain as a symbol of bloodshed in Iraq. Others were filmed kicking and stomping on an image of Bush.

Bush will meet Blair, his closest ally in the war against Saddam, at his 10 Downing Street residence to discuss policy. Bush has lauded Blair as having "good judgment and blunt counsel and backbone."

U.S. President George W. Bush and first Lady Laura Bush stand with Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh as they arrive for a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace November 19, 2003. Bush chided his critics in Europe and said the United Nations risked extinction unless it showed the sort of Anglo-American backbone that toppled Saddam Hussein.   [Reuters]

The two leaders will take questions from reporters, with the issue of Britons held as "enemy combatants" at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, likely to come up.

Nine Britons are held at Guantanamo, among 660 detainees held without charge at the naval base. Most were captured in operations in 2002 to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan or in the hunt for members of the al Qaeda network.

The head of the opposition Liberal Democrat Party said Bush told him on Wednesday that Washington was prepared to satisfy British concerns over the detainees after the U.S. Supreme Court had considered the issue.

"He (Bush) has been clear to us that the Supreme Court is looking at the way in which this matter will be handled legally," party leader Charles Kennedy said.

"But if the British authorities remain unhappy with this, then at the end of the day the Americans will have to accept that they come back to our country for trial under our processes," he said.

ON IRAQ

Bush and Blair may also offer some details on a drive to get U.N. blessing for a U.S. and British plan for Iraqi self-rule by next June, when Bush's re-election campaign will be approaching.

Diplomats said one of the aims of a new U.N. resolution would be to try to encourage the United Nations to return its political staff to Iraq.

Bush on Wednesday challenged the United Nations to toughen its approach, saying: "It is not enough to meet the dangers of the world with resolutions; we must meet those dangers with resolve."

In a foreign policy speech, Bush defended the Iraq war to a British public that was largely opposed to it.

"In some cases the measured use of force is all that protects us from a chaotic world ruled by force," he said.

The speech followed a day of pomp and circumstances that kicked off with a formal welcoming ceremony -- complete with grenadier guards in bearskin hats and mounted cavalry -- for the president and Mrs. Bush in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.

Bush donned a white tie and tails in the evening for a lavish banquet in which Queen Elizabeth, wearing a diamond tiara, toasted the president and his wife and celebrated the transatlantic relationship.

"In the case of the United States and Britain, the two sides of the ocean have never been closer," she said.

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