Bush ready to work with Brown

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Thursday he will miss Prime Minister Tony Blair and is ready to work with his presumed successor, Gordon Brown, confident that he "understands the consequences of failure" in Iraq.

Bush hailed Blair, his staunchest ally in the Iraq war, as a "political figure who is capable of thinking over the horizon," after the British leader said on Thursday he would step down in June.

"I have found him to be a man who's kept his word, which sometimes is rare in the political circles I run in," Bush said after a meeting with U.S. commanders for an update on the war, which has severely damaged both leaders' standing at home and abroad.

"When Tony Blair tells you something, as we say in Texas, you can take it to the bank," Bush added.

Bush left little doubt that he expected Chancellor Brown to succeed Blair after a decade in power. Brown is the clear favourite to win a Labour Party leadership contest and take over as prime minister.

"I look forward to working with the -- Gordon Brown, who I presume is going to be the -- maybe I shouldn't say. I shouldn't predict who's going to be in, but the punditry suggests it'll be him," Bush said.

Bush said he had met Brown "and I found him to be an easy-to-talk-to, good thinker."

Asked how he thought Brown would handle Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, Bush said: "I believe Gordon Brown understands the consequences of failure." Bush insists a quick withdrawal from Iraq would bring chaos there and increase the threat to Washington and its allies.