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WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush praised three "true friends of the United States" as he awarded the nation's highest civilian honour to Tony Blair, John Howard and Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe.
The three men were given the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House in the final days of Bush's presidency.
"This afternoon I'm pleased to award the Medal of Freedom to three extraordinary leaders," Bush said of his Colombian counterpart, former British prime minister Blair and former Australian leader Howard.
Each of the men was "a true friend of the United States who met historic challenges with great tenacity, and who provides a lasting example of statesmanship at home and abroad," he said.
Blair and Howard were Bush's staunchest allies in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and the outgoing president paid lengthy tribute to each of them and their "firm adherence to the principles of freedom and democratic values."
"They're the sort of guys who look you in the eye and tell you the truth and keep their word," he said.
Blair, who is now the special envoy to the Middle East, "was there in a moment of trial to affirm the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom," Bush said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Under Tony Blair's leadership, the might and the moral authority of Great Britain have been applied to the war on terror from the first day.
"The former prime minister of the United Kingdom will stand tall in history."
Blair said later on CNN about the award that "really for me it's about the people who work with me and their sacrifice, and that commitment."
Bush was just as lavish in his praise of Howard, who he said "never wavered in his support for liberty, and free institutions, and the rule of law as the true and hopeful alternatives to ideologies of violence and repression."
"He's a man of honesty and moral clarity. He can make a decision, he can defend it, and he stands his ground. That's why I called him a Man of Steel," Bush added.
But the US president made no mention of the controversy surrounding Howard's visit and his stay in Blair House, which denied incoming president-elect Barack Obama and his family the chance of staying in official residence for a couple of weeks.
As for Uribe, Bush said the Colombian leader had bravely confronted the problem of drug-trafficking in his country. Early in this decade, the Republic of Colombia was near the point of being, at best, a failed state - or, at worst, a narco-state," Bush said.
"In those conditions, it took more than ambition and ideals to run for political office -- it required immense personal courage and strength of character."
Bush told the three leaders they would always be welcome in the United States and invited them to visit him on his Texas ranch after he moves out of the White House on January 20.
"The opportunity to know them and work with them has been among the great satisfactions of my time as president. I respect them and I admire them," he added.
- AFP/yb
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