Blair says no regret over Iraq, vows to pursue third term

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Blair says no regret over Iraq, vows to pursue third term

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the ongoing Labor Party conference on Tuesday that he would seek a third term, and would "take the same decision again" on the Iraq war although it has divided the international community.

"I know many people profoundly believe the action we took was wrong," he told delegates at the Labor Party's 10th annual conference in southern England's seaside city of Bournemouth.

"I ask just one thing: attack my decision but at least understand why I took it and why I would take the same decision again," Blair said.

"It's we who started the war and we will finish the peace," he announced.

His speech is being seen as crucial to his attempts to reconnect with a growing number of detractors and doubters inside his ruling Labor Party.

Many Labor delegates are unhappy with Blair's policies on public service reforms while anti-war sentiments and anger over "spin" continue to bother him.

Blair said he would "listen" more on decision-meaking but had no intention to back down on foundation hospitals, university top-up fees and Iraq, insisting that New Labor must continue on the path of radical reform.

"I can only go one way. I've not got a reverse gear," he said, urging the party to keep the faith and vowing to ride out his "rough patch."

For the first time since Blair became Labor leader in 1994, officials didn't give an advance briefing on his conference speech.That was said to be an attempt to show the Labor Party's intention to abandon "spin" which has been a central factor in the public's loss of trust in Blair and the government recently.

Blair faces tough challenges at the conference which came hard on the heels of the party's by-election defeat by the Liberal Democrats in the formerly safe Labor seat of Brent East in North London, earlier Sept.

It has also been deeply shadowed by a string of opinion poll results showing that public trust in the prime minister has fallen to historic lows. A poll in Saturday's Financial Times newspaper suggested that half of Britons want him to resign immediately.

Labor's popularity has also plummeted to the lowest point since Blair became leader in 1994 and took power in 1997. In a poll by The Observer newspaper, 41 percent of Labor members said they wanted Blair to resign now or before the next general election.

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