Tony Blair yesterday moved a step closer to backing President Bush's missile defence shield saying the world needed "imaginative solutions".

In the press conference, the two leaders presented a united front on a range of other issues. The two called on demonstrators at the Genoa G8 summit to act peacefully. Bush warned them: "You're hurting poor countries."

The two leaders said Northern Ireland had been on the agenda for their meeting. Bush said he would be "a phone call away" if he could help and added that "we stand strongly side by side with Britain when it comes to decommissioning". Blair warned that if the Good Friday Agreement collapsed the situation could spiral rapidly out of control, as had happened in the Middle East.

The only fly in the ointment was the Kyoto agreement on global warming, where Blair reiterated his government's support but Bush refused to, citing concerns for the US economy. The president did, however, accept that there was a problem.

Informality was the key to the first day of Bush's visit to Britain which began with a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms before going to lunch with the Queen and travelling to Chequers.