Iraq continues to haunt Blair’s bid to start election campaign

IRAQ and the fate of hostage Kenneth Bigley are threatening to eclipse efforts by Tony Blair to put domestic policy centre stage.

The British prime minister had hoped to use Labour’s annual conference to focus on a platform for a general election expected in May but the capture of Mr Bigley, being held under threat of death, has kept the war top of the agenda.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, widely held to be an impatient prime minister-in-waiting, weighed in on Mr Blair’s side yesterday in an apparent bid to silence frantic talk of a feud between the two most powerful men in British politics.

“All of us must do whatever we can to ensure that we build the unity of purpose that this country needs by ensuring the strength of our unity of purpose in this party,” Mr Brown told the party’s annual convention.

Labour insiders said Mr Brown’s performance showed he wanted publicly to bury the hatchet with Mr Blair at a time when the prime minister needs all the support he can get.

Iraq has been the most divisive issue of Mr Blair’s seven-year premiership. It has ravaged his public trust ratings, prompting talk of his resignation and feeding the Blair-Brown rivalry speculation.

Mr Blair, who has refused to apologise for backing the US-led war, faces a potentially embarrassing debate on Iraq on Thursday.

To underline Mr Blair’s problems, twelve people were killed in fresh violence across Iraq as an Iranian diplomat kidnapped two months ago by the same Islamic extremist group holding two French reporters was released.

Five Iraqis were killed in a US air strike on the radical Shiite slum of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, another five Iraqi civilians died in a roadside bomb attack north of the capital, and two national guardsmen were killed in a car bombing in northern Iraq.

A Sadr City hospital official said five people were killed in the latest US air raid on the neighbourhood, a stronghold of militants loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The US military said it had killed four targeted militants and destroyed rebel positions in the strikes.

Since the end of a US-led assault on Mr Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia in the holy city of Najaf in August, Iraqi forces and the US military have cracked down on the movement.

Five Iraqi farmers were killed and one injured when a roadside bombing near the restive town of Baquba, north of Baghdad.

Insurgents in the northern city of Mosul detonated a car bomb against an Iraqi national guard patrol, killing two guardsmen and wounding three.

The fledgling national force has been the target of relentless attacks in recent months but as it faces increasing pressure to secure the country in time for January elections, it suffered a serious blow to its credibility on Sunday.

Against the backdrop of daily violence, US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that the poll timetable could be difficult because of what he described as a worsening insurgency.