Britain's Labour Party struggles to shift conference focus from Iraq

BRIGHTON, England (AFP) - Britain's ruling Labour Party was struggling to shift the pre-election focus to domestic politics, as Prime Minister Tony Blair was called on yet again to defend the war in Iraq.
A day after Blair admitted to the party faithful that Iraq had not possessed any useable weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year's conflict, Labour was hoping to instead trumpet achievements in areas such as crime and health.
The conference in the southern English seaside resort of Brighton is likely to be the last before Labour and Blair try to win a third successive term in office in a general election expected to be called for the middle of next year.
Mindful of the British public's doubts over Iraq, Labour is desperate to fight the election battle on home issues, but the war issue refuses to budge, in part due to fears for Ken Bigley, a British engineer held by Islamic militants in Baghdad.
In a glimmer of good news for Blair, Bigley's brother said Wednesday he was hopeful the Briton might be released following an apparent message from the kidnappers.
During a combative interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Blair rejected the view of UN head Kofi Annan that the Iraq war was illegal, also insisting he would be trusted by the British people to take them to war again.
"That's his view," Blair told BBC Radio of Annan's comments earlier this month that the conflict did not comply with the UN charter and was thus illegal, adding: "I don't accept that."
In his address to the Labour gathering on Tuesday, the prime minister admitted mistakes with intelligence about the threat posed by Iraq, but stressed he still thought the war was the correct thing to do.
Speaking on Wednesday, Blair acknowledged his choice to back the US-led conflict to remove Saddam Hussein was "a decision that in terms of let's say popular support has not done me a great deal of good".
But asked whether the public would "laugh" if he tried to persuade them that another country posed a threat and had to be invaded, Blair was bullish.
"I'm afraid I don't accept that people won't trust a judgement that is made provided the evidence is given to them. And of course, it's absolutely right that the evidence given to them has got to be credible," he said.
Wednesday's conference agenda was firmly focused on the domestic front, with Home Secretary David Blunkett due to outline his latest plans to fight crime, while health and education were also being discussed.
In another interview on Wednesday, Blair predicted that when the election came, it would not be Iraq that would ultimately sway the electorate.
"I believe actually when you come to the election, people will vote on other issues," he told the GMTV television programme, naming the economy, health, education and crime as key concerns.
Unfortunately for the prime minister, Iraq looked set to dominate the final day of the conference on Thursday, with delegates scheduled to debate and vote on a pair of motions submitted by local Labour branches about the conflict.
A draft of one of the motions -- the precise wordings of both of which were being frantically negotiated during Wednesday -- called for Blair to "name an early date" for British troops to leave Iraq, a potential embarrassment if endorsed by delegates.