SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were cut from similar political cloth - youngish leaders, articulate in the long forum, will move their parties to the center. They also seem to be pretty good friends, according to transcripts of conversations just released under the Freedom of Information Act. The president calls the prime minister bud. The prime minister calls the president mate. They share shock and grief over the death of Princess Diana and worry that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction. He was not. President Clinton recounts a lunch with Russia's Boris Yeltsin. Twenty-four courses including moose lips, he says. And then the president, who served two terms, tells the prime minister, who served 10 years, the longer you hang around this business it becomes apparent that very few people make it this far by accident. They don't just give these jobs away. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.