British Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to be on course for a third term in Downing Street although the row over his involvement in the Iraq war has deeply damaged his reputation, a poll showed Sunday.

The MORI survey for the newspaper Independent found Blair's ruling Labor Party won 32 percent, one point ahead of the main opposition Conservatives. The second-largest opposition Liberal Democrats, who opposed the Iraq war, were on 24 percent.

Meanwhile, 42 percent of those questioned were "dissatisfied" with Tory leader Michael Howard, against 26 percent who were "satisfied", the survey showed.

Such results at the general election, expected middle next year,would give Blair a comfortable majority of about 80 seats in parliament, the newspaper predicted.

The lowest rating for Howard since he replaced Iain Duncan Smith as Tory leader last November, emerged shortly after his poorperformance in the House of Commons debate on the Butler Report, which pointed out the failure of British intelligence on Iraqi banned weapons and rumors of internal Tory dissent.

The Butler Report said last month that some sources of the British intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were "seriously flawed" but no evidence of "deliberate distortion or culpable negligence" has been found.

Source: Xinhua