Tony Blair flies to Washington today in a bid to prepare the ground for a successful Group of Eight summit at Gleneagles. He has a tough task ahead. With only a month to go and public pressure mounting, the summit is poised between triumph and disaster.

Mr Blair and Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, have raised expectations with talk of a summit that will go down in history for tackling climate change and poverty in Africa. The promise of a Live 8 concert to put pressure on the G8 promises to raise public excitement still higher.