THE WEEK THAT WAS

BY Monitor IN Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair urged members of his party to stop speculation about the timing of his departure from Downing Street and reiterated that he would ensure “an orderly transition” and ”ample time” for his successor to bed down before the next general election. However, his appeal did little to stop unrest among his MPs and party members. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed measures to cap the state's greenhouse–gas emissions and reduce carbon–dioxide emissions by 25 per cent by 2010. California will be the first American state to impose such limits although others have similar measures under consideration, in defiance of the Bush administration's opposition. The senior American general in Iraq claimed that the recent concentration of US forces in Baghdad had reduced violence there and forecast that Iraqi forces could be running most of the country in 12 to 18 months. However the heavy daily toll of casualties seemed to be continuing. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visited Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iran and the West Bank in an effort to bolster the fragile peace in Lebanon. Meanwhile Iran gave no undertaking that it would suspend the enrichment of uranium by August 31, as it had been required to do in a UN Security Council resolution. The United States said that the Council would have to consider sanctions against Iran but China and Russia indicated that they would probably oppose such a move. Another UN Security Council resolution called on the Sudanese government to agree to permit a UN peacekeeping force to take over in the violence–affected area of Darfur from the African Union's force whose mandate runs out at the end of September. Early indications were that Sudan would refuse the request. US consumer confidence fell in August to the lowest level since November 2005. Factors were less favourable news on employment levels, a slow down in housing markets and rising oil prices.