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Blair dismisses illness speculation

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JAN. 6. The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has denied that his health had anything to do with his decision not to interrupt his Christmas holiday in Egypt and return home to deal with the tsunami crisis.

He dismissed speculation that he was under doctors' orders to rest after recent health scares following a minor heart surgery. Making light of reports relating to his fitness, he said: "I think there was also a suggestion I went away to have plastic surgery. Unfortunately, as you can see, I am looking the same as I always did.''

Mr. Blair's remarks, in a BBC interview, followed widespread criticism in the media and political circles that his decision to go ahead with his "luxury'' holiday even as many Britons perished in the tsunami disaster smacked of "insensitivity''. Critics contrasted this with his high-profile public intervention following the 9/11 attacks pointing out that despite the global scale of the tsunami catastrophe he barely made any public gesture of solidarity with its victims.

Mr. Blair retorted that what was needed was "action, not words''. "I do not think this is a situation in which the British people need me to articulate what they feel. I think they feel what we all do — shock, horror and absolute solidarity with those people who have lost their lives and those countries that now need to be rebuilt. I thought, and think, the important thing is to get behind that sense and that mood with action,'' he said.

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