Blair backs Bush plan on Iraq

Prime minister Tony Blair backed US president George Bush’s new plan in Iraq and said he believed the Iraqi prime minister could meet the benchmarks set by the United States.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr Blair said of Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki: “He’s a man with the intent and we’ve got to support him in having the capacity. That’s what it’s all about.”

However, despite the optimism, Mr Blair called Iraq a tremendous challenge.

Mr Blair, who is expected to leave office this year and is making his last appearance as prime minister at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the world was already in a climate crisis and that he expected progress on global trade talks.

“It’d be a fantastic thing for poor countries, but also good for us.”

He brushed off criticism in Britain that, since his time as leader was running out, he should have stayed away from Davos and given the floor to other British leaders, including his presumed successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown.

“If I decided where to go based on criticism,” he said, “I wouldn’t go anywhere.”

Unless a global climate agreement was reached, the outlook for the world was “bleak at best, and potentially disastrous”, Mr Blair said.

Asked whether British and Americans were losing patience with Iraq, Mr Blair said: “Perfectly understandably they want to know that we’ve got a plan and can succeed with this plan.”

In Iraq, Mr Blair said the important thing now was to support the Iraqi government in its fight against the violence, “which is being perpetrated by a small number of people against the wishes and the will of the majority”.

He disputed that the violence there is a civil war “with blocs of people fighting each other. This is a small minority … often bolstered by outside extremists”.

“The one thing that was very clear when I was in Iraq before Christmas was that if you talk to not just Iraqi leaders there, but, interestingly, talking to my own soldiers and people we have in Iraq, they will tell you the majority of people there want to live a peaceful life.”

In any case, “What mustn’t happen is a situation where as a result of terrorist activity designed to kill innocent people and the impact those terrible pictures make, that we lose our determination to stand up to these people and defeat them”.

Turning to the environment, Mr Blair said: “We’re living through a crisis with the changes to our environment.

“The fact is, just on the precautionary principle, it’d be sensible to act. And the truth is, if we don’t act, and in a way that binds the main countries in … long-term prospects are bleak at best, and potentially disastrous.”

Mr Blair said that he wanted to use his visit to Davos to call attention to issues he had championed before, but which are not coming to the fore in international councils.

“We’ve got really important work to do in the international community, whether it is with climate change, with trade, with Africa,” he said.

“The values that underpin all of these issues are the same values, which are about protecting our environment and justice for people, making sure that we create a world that is open and free for people to create the prosperity that they want and that is prepared to work with each other to take on global challenges. And that is my message really – that we work in an interdependent world".

He said the world shared certain values, “and the key thing is to turn that intent and purpose into action”.

On trade talks, Mr Blair said he was cautiously optimistic, because of the hard work that has been done in the last few weeks in discussions with president Bush, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazilian president Lula da Silva.

“I think we are prepared to move to make the compromises necessary to get this done in the greater good of all of us,” he said.

An agreement on trade would be “fantastic” for the poorest nations, he said. “But it would also be a great thing for us, for the wealthy countries, because it would open new markets to our goods and services.”