The US president is set to face a raft of difficult issues from trade tariffs to human rights during his trip to the UK.

President George W Bush was set to arrive in the UK on Tuesday for the first US state visit for over 80 years.

Tony Blair will hold a day of talks with the president on Thursday. The two leaders will meet for private talks before convening a round table discussion on HIV/Aids in the developing world.

The prime minister will call on the president to adopt a new strategy in Iraq.

Blair will say that the military operation must be set alongside a greater diplomatic push to involve Iraqis in the running of their country.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK's representative in Iraq, said the policy must now include political, economic and diplomatic goals.

Whilst he said the coalition had to "show strength" he added that "political outreach" would also be important.

Blair is also under pressure to show that his decision to join the US in the war in Iraq will yield results.

It is thought that the president will rebuff calls for the removal of steel tariffs.

Instead the prime minister and his US colleague are likely to agree to a wider commitment on trade talks.

Ahead of the visit leading political figures and commentators have signalled what they would like to see discussed.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, who will meet the president on Wednesday, pledged to press Bush about the war in Iraq and the British citizens held in Guantanamo Bay.

He also demanded that both governments ensured protests were not stopped.

"There should be no repeat of the scenes during the visit of the president of China, when peaceful protesters found their activities curtailed unreasonably," he said.

The Stop the War Coalition, which is organising the main protests against the president's visit, said there should only be one issue on the agenda.

"The main thing has to be ending the occupation of Iraq. Bring the troops home. Liberal democracies should listen to the people," a spokesman told ePolitix.com.

Defence expert Paul Beaver predicted the agenda would be dominated by military issues.

"It will be Iraq and the future of Nato," he told ePolitix.com. "President Bush, I'm sure, will be plugging away for Boeing to win the future strategic tanker PFI order and the joint strike fighter.

"And quite frankly I think he'll be looking for a bit of support from Tony Blair. Tony Blair is rated by the voters from Iowa and Texas to California and Washington."

Beyond steel tariffs is the wider issue of the WTO trade round which is under pressure following the failure of negotiations at Cancun.

"In trade terms we are eager that Britain and the USA focus on getting the World Trade Organisation talks restarted. This is essential to building a global trade system that works for all countries," said Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary.

Shadow trade secretary James Arbuthnot demanded that the prime minister gets more than warm words out of the president's high profile visit.

"It's time for the USA to drop its damaging steel tariffs. The truth is that they are causing job losses in the USA as well as here," he said.

"They are forcing up the price of steel and putting the squeeze on manufacturing industry on both sides of the Atlantic.

"When the president says freedom is the gift of God, that applies to free trade as well as freedom of the individual."