BRIGHTON, England (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair goes before his own Labour Party to encourage its rank and file to look beyond the Iraq war and aim for a third term in power in elections likely to be held next year.
Blair is to address Labour's annual conference in Brighton, on England's southern coast, at 2:15 pm (1315 GMT), with political analysts calling his speech one of the most important of his political career.
He was expected to argue that Labour -- despite flagging popularity among voters -- remains head and shoulders above the main opposition Conservatives as the party best placed to lead Britain over the coming years.
On Iraq, he was expected to reiterate that while mistakes were made in sizing up the menace of Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, there remains no reason to apologise for his ouster.
Iraq has been casting a long shadow over the five-day Labour conference, which ends Thursday with a debate and vote on a motion -- wording yet to be finalised -- on Britain's role there.
Eighteen months after the US and British invasion of Iraq, and with an election likely in the first half of 2005, Blair had hoped to refocus minds on domestic issues such as health care, education and law and order.
He remains haunted in Brighton, however, by the ordeal of Kenneth Bigley, 62, an engineer from Liverpool abducted 12 days ago in Baghdad by Islamic extremists who have already executed his two American colleagues.
Much to the frustration of the Bigley family, which has issued a number of emotional appeals for his release, Blair has assumed a low profile, saying only that his government is doing all it can to help.