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

BRIGHTON, England (AFP) - Britain's ruling Labour Party struggled to shift the pre-election focus to domestic politics, as Prime Minister Tony Blair faced renewed pressure over the fate of a British hostage in Iraq.
A day after Blair admitted to the party faithful that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction ahead of last year's British-backed war, Labour was hoping to 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 severe public doubts over Iraq, the party is desperate to fight on home policies, but the war issue refuses to budge, in part due to grave fears for Ken Bigley, a British engineer held by Islamic militants in Baghdad.
In a video shown on Wednesday by satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, Bigley was seen tied up with rope and huddled in a small cage, looking exhausted and apparently blaming Blair for his two-week ordeal.
"He doesn't care about me. I'm only one ... just one person," Bigley is heard saying.
Over the course of Wednesday's debates, government ministers unveiled a string of new policies and pledges for education and crime, while Blair himself predicted it would be these issues on which the election hinged.
"I believe actually when you come to the election, people will vote on other issues (than Iraq)," he told the GMTV television programme.
However with one day of the conference left, which coincides with a key parliamentary by-election to replace senior Labour lawmaker Peter Mandelson, who has left to become EU Trade Commissioner, Iraq stayed centre stage.
Delegates were scheduled to debate on Thursday 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 still being frantically negotiated -- called for Blair to "name an early date" for British troops to leave Iraq, a potential embarrassment if endorsed.
Blair was also forced on the defensive during another interview on Wednesday morning, rejecting the view of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the Iraq war was illegal.
"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."
And 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.
Despite Blair's woes, Labour are still clear favourites to win the upcoming election, thanks in no small part to the continued unpopularity of the main opposition Conservative Party.
Many British newspapers have spent much of the conference speculating feverishly about relations between Blair and his finance minister -- and perceived arch-rival -- Gordon Brown.
Bono, the singer of Irish rock band U2 turned campaigner for debt relief, had a joke at the pair's expense during a rapturously received speech demanding a new era of fair trade and poverty relief for developing nations.
To the delight of the audience, Bono compared Blair and Brown to Beatles songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney -- they were "the John and Paul of the development world stage", he said -- saying that they also worked best as a team.