UK's Blair heads for fight that will shape future

Britain's Tony Blair and his main political opponent traded blows on Sunday over the Iraq war, drawing up the battlelines for an imminent fight that could define the prime minister's future.

Blair defiantly vowed not to "hide away" from a debate about an inquiry into the suicide of an expert on Iraq's weapons while the leader of the opposition Conservative Party Michael Howard went on the attack ahead of the release of the inquiry's report.

Senior Judge Lord Hutton is due to report on the death on weapons scientist David Kelly in coming weeks and could apportion some of the blame to government figures.

Depending on its findings, the report could either bolster Blair or deal a crushing blow to his standing as Labour's best electoral asset, fuel dissent among his Labour Party and further dent the prime minister's diminished popularity.

Kelly slit his wrist in July after being named as the source behind a BBC report that accused the government of inflating the threat from Iraq to justify war to a sceptical public.

Kelly's death and the Iraq war plunged Blair into the worst period of his premiership, sending his once lofty public trust ratings plunging and stirring an appetite for rebellion among members of his ruling Labour Party.

The Hutton report comes as Blair braces for a make-or-break vote over a flagship education policy over which he has staked his authority and as his critics pressure him over the failure to find any banned weapons in Iraq.

Howard, who took over as Conservative leader in November, has proved a formidable opponent to Blair and the Hutton report could prove a lethal weapon in his hands as he vies to oust Blair in the next general election, expected in 2005.

Blair was defiant on Sunday about Hutton, his flagship education policy and Iraq's banned weapons.

"I am enthusiastic about being at long last able to debate these issues on the basis of an objective, independent judgment by a judge rather than speculation," Blair said of Hutton on BBC television. "I can assure you I have no intention of hiding away from this at all."

However, Howard accused Blair of lying over the Kelly affair.

Days after Kelly's death, Blair emphatically denied authorising the leaking of his name to the media but a Ministry of Defence official told the inquiry Blair had chaired a meeting where a strategy was decided that led to Kelly's exposure.

"There's a complete conflict, both those accounts can't be truthful," Howard told Sky television.

Blair has said he will resign if he is found to have lied.

Whatever Hutton's findings, the Kelly affair has damaged a prime minister whose "Trust me, I'm Tony" approach helped Labour trounce the Conservatives at the past two elections.

A YouGov poll for the Mail on Sunday newspaper showed only 23 percent believe Blair's assertions that he did not leak Kelly's name.

If Hutton criticises Blair, the prime minister could find it difficult to fight future battles on policy or Iraq's weapons.

Blair risks his first defeat on a major policy issue over his plans to make students pay more for university education. But Blair said about the vote: "I haven't contemplated defeat and I don't intend to."

He justified the Iraq war, while acknowledging that weapons of mass destruction may never be found.

"It may well not be surprising that you don't find where this stuff is hidden," he said. "I received this intelligence and I believe it would have been irresponsible not to have acted upon it."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq