"There's a big job of work to do and my appetite for doing it is undiminished," said Blair at his first Downing Street press conference since the presumed suicide of former UN arms inspector David Kelly.

Blair, who on Saturday becomes Britain's longest continuous-serving Labour prime minister, was circumspect when asked about a third term, saying simply: "Who the country elects is ultimately a matter for the country."

Blair used his monthly Downing Street press conference to highlight his government's achievements in delivering economic stability, better public services and less crime.

"There is an enormous amount still to do, but those achievements are real and I believe will be sustainable," he said. "The overall record is one that bears comparison with any government, Labour or Conservative, in the past."

Blair, 50, will on Saturday surpass the reign of former Labour prime minister Clement Atlee who led the country for an unbroken six years and 92 days between 1945 and 1951.

Atlee's greatest achievement was the creation of the free-care-for-all National Health Service, which Blair today is trying to reform as it grapples with long waiting lists and a shortage of staff.

Blair was first elected in 1997 under a "New Labour" platform that did away with the party's bedrock socialism. He was re-elected with a landslide in 2001, and need not call a fresh election before 2006.

On Wednesday, he refused to talk about Kelly's death in detail, pending the outcome of an independent judicial inquiry charied by Lord Brian Hutton that opens Friday in London.

"It is important that having announced an inquiry we let it take its course," Blair said,

"I do really do very strongly believe that the public out there, they expect the government to carry on governing on the issues they elected us for," he added.

Kelly, found dead with a slit wrist a day after he disappeared on July 17, was a key figure in a bitter row between Blair's government and the BBC over claims that Downing Street "sexed up" the case for war on Iraq.

Blair insisted Wednesday that he still believed that intelligence published by his government on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction before the start of the US-led war was correct.

"There has always been something bizarre about the notion that Saddam never had any weapons of mass destruction," he said, referring to the deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"I remain very firmly of the view that this was a threat that had to be dealt with and that Iraq would be a significantly better place because of the action we have taken."

Asked whether he would prefer Saddam to be captured or killed, Blair replied: "The most important thing is that he ceases to be an obstacle to progress in Iraq. A lot of the problems, for example on services in Iraq, water and electricty, is a problem of sabotage by former Saddam supporters."

Blair said the death of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay in a four-hour showdown with US troops on July 22 in Mosul, northern Iraq, made it more likely that the elusive Saddam would be caught.

"The two sons have been killed, the bodyguards have been captured and are being interrogated," the prime minister said.

"Does that make it more likely that we can get Saddam? Yes, I suppose it does, but I am drawing the obvious conclusion from the facts as anyone would."

WAR.WIRE