Gordon Brown sought to play down transatlantic tensions over British troop withdrawals from Iraq, as on Sunday night he hosted an informal dinner for George W. Bush during what is expected to be the US president’s last visit to the UK.

Mr Bush warned in an interview on Sunday that there “should be no definitive timetable” for pulling troops out of Iraq. The US president told The Observer newspaper he was confident the prime minister would “listen to our commanders, to make sure that the sacrifices that have gone forward won’t be unravelled by drawdowns that may not be warranted”.