UK'S Blair refuses to set date for departure

London, Sep 1 (UNI) British Prime Minister Tony Blair has refused to set a date for his departure and insisted that he has no intention of saying more about his future either before or during the Labour Party conference.

Mr Blair told his party to ''stop obsessing'' about the leadership and get on with the business of government. If it kept talking about the leadership, people would think the Government was paralysed or had run out of steam, he claimed.

He said the MPs who ''carried on and on'' about his leadership were really doing so because they wanted a change of direction away from new Labour.

He further added that, unlike Margaret Thatcher, he would not go ''on and on and on'' and promised again to give ''ample time'' for his successor to bed in. He promised to ''do his best for party and country and depart in a stable, sensible and orderly way''.

But in the meantime he intended to get on with the job of being Prime Minister and governing the country.

''I really think it is absurd for the people who say we must stop this continual speculation about the leadership to continue to speculate about it. I'm not the one who keeps raising this issue.

I have done what no other prime minister has done before me. I've said I'm not going to go on and on and on, and said I'll leave ample time for my successor. Now at some point I think people have to accept that as a reasonable proposition and let me get on with the job,'' Mr Blair said in an interview to The Times.

He said he could understand if people thought he was going on and on or not allowing ample time for his successor. But he was doing neither.

''I think if it is speculation that people are worried about, there is a simple answer -- stop speculating. If what they are really worried about is timing I think most of you can look at what I have said and draw conclusions about that,'' he said.

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