LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair returned to work after a minor heart operation that has boosted his popularity but also fueled speculation that he will step down sooner rather than later.
"He's at work now" at his Downing Street office in central London, a spokesman told AFP on Monday.
Blair, 51, underwent a two-and-a-half hour medical procedure Friday to correct a recurrence of an irregular heartbeat that was first diagnosed and treated in October 2003.
The west London hospital that treated Blair said "the procedure was successful in eliminating the atrial flutter. We consider the risk of recurrence of the problem to be very low."
Blair spent the weekend at Chequers, the country retreat outside London used by British prime ministers, having pronounced himself in "excellent" health as he set off there on Saturday, accompanied by his wife Cherie.
It was a welcome rest after the operation and a rough-and-tumble week in which Blair tried to heal divisions over Iraq at the Labour Party conference, possibly the last before general elections expected for May 2005.
The prime minister had no meetings scheduled for the weekend.
On Tuesday evening Blair was scheduled to travel to Africa.
According to an opinion poll published in The Times on Monday, Blair's popularity, damaged by his decision to have British troops join the US-led invasion of Iraq, has increased since he underwent the operation.
Thirty-five percent of respondents to the Populus Institute poll said they would vote for Blair's ruling Labour party if a general election were held now.
That figure is a three-percent increase over a similar poll held a month ago, while support for the opposition Conservatives was down two percent to 28 percent in the latest poll. The Liberal Democrats received 25 percent of the support of those polled, one point up on last month.
Regarding personal popularity, Blair scored 5.31 out of ten in the opinion poll, against 4.98 for Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and 4.15 for Conservative party boss Michael Howard.
Blair's popularity is thus the highest it has been since the end of major military operations in Iraq in May 2003, The Times reported.
However more than half of those questioned thought Blair should quit now or very soon (39 percent) or soon after the next elections, expected to be held in the spring (16 percent).
Thirty-six percent expressed the wish that the prime minister will stay on until the end of a third term.
In announcing his heart operation late Thursday, Blair also surprised the political establishment by declaring that if Labour won the next general election he would serve a third complete term as prime minister but no more.
No other British premier has ever made such an announcement. It has been seen by pundits as a shrewd attempt by Blair to head off challenges to his own leadership inside an increasingly restive Labour Party.
However, The Independent on Sunday reported that Blair faced mounting pressure from Labour members of parliament to leave sooner than the five-year deadline he set himself.
Meanwhile, the announcement of the heart operation and Blair's retirement plans have opened the way for a battle to succeed Blair.