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LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from a row over his holiday in a pop star's Florida home, said on Tuesday he would be reluctant to give up his holidays abroad in the interests of preventing global warming.
Blair is a champion of international efforts to combat climate change but he cautioned that people could lose interest in helping the environment if governments told them to stop travelling overseas or to give up their cars.
"I would frankly be reluctant to give up my holidays abroad," Blair told Sky News when asked if he would give up flying to Barbados as a contribution to the environment.
Blair's taste for holidays at the luxurious homes of pop stars and other celebrities in exotic locations has regularly landed him in hot water in Britain, with political opponents and the media demanding to know if he pays for the hospitality.
He received a roasting over his year-end holiday at the US mansion of Bee Gees star Robin Gibb, even though Blair's office insisted he paid for the stay.
Blair, who is set to step down this year after a decade in power, also faced controversy over previous stays at the home of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and at pop star Cliff Richard's Barbados mansion.
Carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in Britain are set to surge by the middle of the century and Blair's government recently announced plans to double taxes on air travel to try to combat climate change.
But Blair said it was a "bit impractical" to expect people to give up overseas trips for a holiday closer to home.
"I think that what we need to do is look at how you make air travel more energy efficient, how you develop the new fuels that will allow us to burn less energy and emit less," Blair said in the interview, recorded last week in his kitchen, in which he was asked to give tips on helping the environment.
Millions of Britons fly abroad each year for holidays and to visit second homes, helped by the boom in low-cost air travel.
Blair said he was still waiting for the first politician to say he would cancel cheap air travel and he predicted none would do so: "It's like telling people you shouldn't drive anywhere."
- REUTERS
