Blair Sees Chance For Progress on Middle East Conflict

Blair said a friend who recently traveled to Iraq told him that with all the obvious problems, there was a "danger that you move from having been unduly optimistic to unduly pessimistic."

He said it was understandable that as Iraq makes the difficult transition from decades of "brutal repression" under a dictator to democratic rule, "you will have all sorts of poison that then flows out."

But people in Iraq, he said, are committed to creating a "nonsectarian future" because "the alternative is no future."

Blair also made an impassioned plea for the United States to lead the world on climate change, an issue that Blair has championed despite reluctance from the Bush White House.

"There's a big opportunity for the administration and for America on climate change," he said. "What you guys should do is come up with a sensible plan and framework" that encourages business to invest in environmental technology innovations and wins support from emerging powers such as China and India.

"No country is going to mess up its economy to meet some agreed target," Blair said. But private industry will "quickly spot an opportunity" if new markets are created for environmentally friendly technologies, he said.

Blair noted that Bush made a "pretty bold" statement about America's "addiction to oil" in his last State of the Union address.

Now, he said, Bush should follow up with "a framework that can help cure that addiction," then pitch it to the rest of the world, saying, "Come on, everybody has got to do this."