Next Monday, a meeting of Washington notables will take place that will be all the more influential for the absence of one of its key members.

Assembling for the first time since the Democratic party regained control of the House of Representatives and won the Senate in the mid-term congressional elections, the Iraq Study Group will be missing Robert Gates, one of its 10 commissioners, whom President George W. Bush on Wednesday appointed to replace Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary.