Britain's Blair tarnished by scandal as end nears

LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) British premier Tony Blair faces a harder fight than ever to save his legacy in the wake of savage postmortems after he scrapped an arms deal bribery probe and was questioned by police investigating political funding.

Blair, whose Labour party steamrollered a scandal-prone Conservative government 10 years ago on a pledge to be ''whiter than white'', was lacerated today by British media, including some papers that had been his staunchest backers.

The prime minister, who is to step down next year amid public anger over his unflagging support for the war in Iraq, said he took full responsibility for halting the probe -- into allegations that bribes were paid to secure aerospace contracts with Saudi Arabia -- because it could harm national security.

''Yesterday will leave stains on Mr Blair that will survive any amount of scrubbing,'' said the Guardian in a hard-hitting editorial, dubbing it his most ''inglorious'' day in office.

''Of all the blows to this government's reputation for integrity ... none has been as scandalous as the announcement yesterday,'' said the newspaper, which is seen as the institutional voice of the centre-left.

Blair's spokesman said Britain's Attorney General believed the probe was unlikely to result in a successful prosecution or conviction.

Blair is heading to the region soon and will visit moderate Arab nations in a bid to make progress on Israeli-Palestinan peace talks and to try to salvage the situation in Iraq before he leaves his post next year.

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