Political Diary
By Mark Mardell BBC News political correspondent

He may not be sporting a Stetson, but Tony Blair is still getting on famously with his gym buddy George, reports Mark Mardell from the G8 summit in Canada.

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The most secure summit ever has claimed its first casualty.

Every few hundred yards huge black wire barriers litter the roads through the breathtakingly beautiful Rockies, where little rivulets of snow high up on the mountain side glitter in the baking heat.

By the pools and mountain streams soldiers camp out, and surface to air missiles nestle among the pine trees.

I joked on one live broadcast that any Golden Eagles with anarchist tendencies should watch out.

I now rather regret this: soldiers have shot dead a black bear that fell out of a tree when they tried to frighten it away from their food with fire crackers.

Its political affiliations are not known but black is the anarchists chosen colour.

Whoops ! Blair has failed the white Stetson test.

The good people of Calgary have devised an accurate measure of politicians folksiness.

The greatest honour the city can bestow is giving a White Cowboy hat - rather like handing over the freedom of the City in London.

So naturally they gave one to each of the world leaders.

Top of the folk-o-metre: George W swished on the hat and looked ready to cook up some down home ribs.

The Japanese leader put his on with a certain world weariness at bizarre Western customs.

Berlusconi looked at it with huge interest as if try to work out which way it went on.

Schroeder plonked his on the head of the man who'd given it to him.

Joint bottom of the of folk-o-metre?

Chirac and Blair who quickly handed the offending item to an aide.

So was there a split, a rift, a bust up, between best buds Tony and George W?

Clearly the American President is saying Arafat has to go, and Blair is saying that it's up to the Palestinians to choose their leader.

But having interviewed the PM, seen him at two news conference and been on his plane for an on the record briefing I'm convinced that Prime Minister objects to the tactics not the substance of the plan.

It seems he thinks if his mate W rushes around telling the Palestinians what to do, then they're more likely to resist doing it.

But Blair has been consistently contemptuous of what he sees as Arafat's failure and has stressed the need for dramatic change.

We can get carried away with nuance but the bald fact is that Tony Blair has enthusiastically backed a plan which Palestinians see as offering them a sketchily outlined pie in a far away sky.

And it seems the Odd Couple are as pally as ever.

George W spoke about his "great friend" Tony, and Tony talked with enthusiasm about W's openness and honestly.

Things started to get positively Laurentian when Bush revealed their bilateral was their second session together that day.

They'd first met in the exclusive resort's gym.

They broke off the treadmill to talk Middle East but at the news conference they put the world on pause while George joshed about how fit Tony looked and Tony talked of George being in good shape.

I have yet to find out if W tried to snatch Tony's towel away in playful locker room fun but I don't think I really want to go there.

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