Blair: I was wrong to reveal my retirement plan

Britain's PM Tony Blair (R) with his Australian counterpart John Howard at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Picture / Reuters

Tony Blair has admitted his decision to "pre-announce" his retirement before last year's election has failed to quash the frenzy of speculation over when he will quit as Prime Minister.

He told ABC, Australia's public broadcaster, he had a "mistaken hope" that his highly unusual statement in October 2004 not to serve a fourth term as Prime Minister would prevent his third term being overshadowed by media speculation about his future.

"I think what happens when you get into your third term and you are coming up to your 10th year is that it really doesn't matter what you say. You are going to get people saying it should be time for a change or 'when are you going?' or 'who's taking over?'," said Blair, who has been in office since 1997.

Blair said his announcement he would not seek another term was "an unusual thing for me to say, but people kept asking me the question so I decided to answer it. Maybe that was a mistake."

Asked about the comment later, Blair's official spokesman said: "Some people may think it was a mistake. He (Blair) doesn't."

Blair's Labour Party has come under pressure after officials revealed it had received nearly 14 million pounds of loans from 12 businessmen, some of whom were nominated for seats in Britain's upper parliamentary chamber after lending money.

Officials said there was some confusion over his remarks in the interview, because he was interrupted at a critical moment.

"He in no way regrets telling the electorate about his intentions," said one aide.

"He believed, and still believes, it was best to be honest with them."

Some close allies urged Mr Blair in 2004 not to go public with his plans, warning he would be seen as a lame-duck leader in his final term.

But the Prime Minister, who had studied closely the problems that afflicted Margaret Thatcher in her third term, felt his announcement would prevent Labour's election campaign last year being dogged by questions about whether he would "go on and on".

He also wanted to allay Gordon Brown's fears that he might run for a fourth term at a time of great tension between them.

Yesterday John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, said he supported Mr Blair's decision.

"I thought it would be announcing then you could get on with a peaceful transference of power," he told BBC television's The Politics Show.

Mr Blair, who watched the close of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with his wife, Cherie, and met British athletes, returned to business early today by making another defence of his strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the second of three keynote speeches on foreign affairs, Mr Blair told the Australian parliament in Canberra: "If the going is tough, we tough it out.

This is not a time to walk away but to have the courage to see it through."

He stressed the importance of "global alliances for global values" in an "interconnected" world in which foreign policy stretches across continents like economics or communications.

Mr Blair said: "The struggle in our world today therefore, is not just about security it is a struggle about values and about modernity, whether to be at ease with it or enraged.

"To win we have to win the battle of ideas as much as arms, we have to say these are not western still less American or Anglo-Saxon values, but values in the common ownership of humanity, universal values that should be the right of the global citizen - this is the challenge."

He went on: "Ranged against are the people who hate us, but beyond them are many more who don't hate us but question our motives, our good faith, our even-handedness, who could support our values but believe we support them selectively."

He added: "If we want to secure our way of life, there's no alternative but to fight for it - that means standing up for our values not just in our own country but the world over."

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