HOME > BREAKING NEWS > STORY Get News by Email Print This Article Email This Article Blair ready to pay 'blood price' From correspondents in London September 06, 2002 PRIME Minister Tony Blair has agreed that Britain is prepared to pay the "blood price" for supporting the United States in moments of crisis. In a BBC interview focusing on the crisis over Iraq, Blair - who is President George W. Bush's principal military ally - insisted that in maintaining the vaunted special relationship between London and Washington, Britain was acting in its own interests. The interviewer asked Blair: "One of the elements of the special relationship is that Britain is prepared to send troops, to commit themselves, to pay the blood price. Do you recognise that?" The prime minister replied: "Yes. What is important though is that at moments of crisis they (the US) don't need to know simply that you are giving general expressions of support and sympathy. "That is easy, frankly. They need to know: Are you prepared to commit, are you prepared to be there when the shooting starts?" Blair said he was very reluctant ever to get into military action. "But there are some times in which it is inevitable. "We are not at the stage of decision on Iraq, and there are all sorts of different ways in which we might decide to deal with this Iraqi problem in the end. "But what you cannot do is to say that this issue of weapons of mass destruction, proliferation of chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear capability in the hands of highly unstable states ... that these are issues that don't need to be dealt with." The interview is to be screened Sunday. Excerpts of it were released in advance. Asked about Bush's apparent desire to attack Iraq, Blair said: "Britain decides its own policy and although I back America, I would never back America if I thought they were doing something wrong." Blair added: "The reason we are together is not because America snaps its fingers and we feel we have to jump to it. "Why on earth should we do that? We are a sovereign country. There is no reason for us to act inconsistent with our own interests. "The reason we are with America in so many of these issues is because it is in our interests. We do think the same. We do feel the same. We have the same sense of belief that if there is a problem, you have got to act upon it." Blair is to discuss the Iraq crisis when he meets Bush this weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington. Agence France-Presse Back Get News by Email Print This Article Email This Article OTHER BREAKING NEWS HEADLINES