George Bush: "Blair used to laugh at my corny jokes"

George Bush has admitted that he may not be "great friends" with Tony Blair, but that the former PM used to make him laugh.

The president said the pair used to giggle at each other's jokes.

He said: "I don't know if Tony Blair would ever say "George Bush is my great, personal friend". He may but I can tell you that my relationship was one that was comfortable. We laughed a lot, he kindly laughed at my corny jokes and I laughed at his corny jokes "I view our relationship as a relationship forged in battle. A relationship that was writing the first chapter of this ideological struggle against cold blooded murderers who kill the innocent to achieve political objectives."

Bush was speaking on a TV documentary called The Blair Years, where both he and Blair talk about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein.

Blair said: "It is complete rubbish that when I went to see President Bush at the ranch in April 2002 that I said right "okay I'm up for it". What's more, he was not of that view at that time.

"He was always very cogniscent of the difficulty I had. He was, as he used to say, determined that we shouldn't end up with the regime change being in Britain. And he was saying to me, "look I understand this is very difficult and America can do this militarily on its own and if you want to stick out of it stick out of it".

"And I was equally emphatic that we shouldn't do that. "I think it was important then and it's important now that we stick with America on this, that we don't have them try to do it on their own."

Bush agreed that he offered to go it alone, saying: "I said "rather than lose your government, be passive. We'll go without you if need be because I don't want you to lose your government"."