Reply #7: Mr Blair, who is on holiday in Barbados, [View All]

[rodeodance]

.....Mr Blair, who is on holiday in Barbados, insisted that the completion of negotiations for a draft constitution was "an important and historic achievement". But the Prime Minister also acknowledged that the Sunni opposition presented serious difficulties for the path ahead. He said: "It is vital each of those communities participate fully in the democratic political process, including the referendum in October and elections in December."

Mr Blair also suffered a setback with the publication of a leaked memo which contradicted his claim that there was no link between the July 7 suicide attacks in London and the Iraq conflict. It emerged that Sir Michael Jay, the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, wrote to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull, on 18 May last year warning that foreign policy in Iraq and the Middle East was "a key driver" for extremist recruitment.