Tony Blair 'looking healthy'

2004-10-02 12:54

London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair was recovering on Saturday from successful hospital treatment to correct an irregular heartbeat, his office said.

Blair looked healthy and relaxed as he left his No 10 Downing Street office and got into a chauffeur-driven car at about 10:20. He was accompanied by his wife Cherie and was due to spend the weekend at Chequers, his official country residence, a spokesperson said.

There was no change in his condition from late Friday, when the prime minister returned to Downing Street from the hospital and told reporters he was "absolutely fine," the spokesperson said.

"He's going to be working on government papers over the weekend, but no formal meetings are planned," he said. He added that Blair would be back at his desk on Monday and planned to make a scheduled trip to Africa on Tuesday.

Complete recovery

The London hospital that treated Blair said the risk of recurrence was very low and that the 51-year-old prime minister was expected to make a rapid and complete recovery.

"The procedure was successful in eliminating the atrial flutter," the Hammersmith Hospital in west London said in a statement.

Blair's heart condition - supraventricular tachycardia - is caused by rapid electrical activity in the upper parts of the heart and results in a sometimes irregular, rapid heartbeat.

The 2 1/2-hour procedure, which medical experts described as safe and routine, involved a local aesthetic and the insertion of a catheter through the groin and up to the heart, where radio-frequency energy is used to kill off the cells conducting the extra impulses.

Blair's heart condition, which first came to public attention a year ago, has fuelled persistent rumours in political circles and in the media that Blair intended to step down within a couple of years of being re-elected in favour of his Treasury chief, Gordon Brown.

In a TV interview on Thursday night, Blair sought to end such speculation and said he intended to serve a full third term but would not seek a fourth term. If elections are called next year and Labour stays in power, that would see Blair in office until 2009, or at the latest 2010, surpassing former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 11-year stint.

A Blair ally on Saturday dismissed a suggestion that the prime minister had agreed to make way for Brown, and urged Brown supporters to stop speculating about a possible handover.

"There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that any deal was done last year. It is simply gossip," Jack Cunningham, a former minister in Blair's cabinet, told British Broadcasting Corporation radio.

"Frankly, it would help if others who have an idea about their own interests in the succession would just shut up and help him (Blair) to get on with governing the country," he said.

- AP