Blair urges Europe, US to heal divide

"It is a moment either for reconciliation or for drifting apart," he warned in a speech in Warsaw during a brief visit to Poland.

Pointing to people on both sides of the Atlantic who wanted the two continents to forge separate destinies, Blair told dignitaries at Warsaw's Royal Castle he was "determined to fight" for a joint future.

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"The real questions is: can we recognise a sufficient convergence of interest to rebuild this transatlantic alliance and strengthen it? I believe we can," he said.

He was speaking during a brief stopover in the Polish capital, before heading for St Petersburg, where he was to attend celebrations to mark the 300th anniversary of Russia's former imperial capital.

After that he was to go on to the annual gathering of G8 world leaders this coming weekend in the French Alpine town of Evian.

With the European Union deeply divided over the Iraq war, transatlantic ties have recently come under strain, with EU heavyweights France and Germany, who led opposition to the war, irked at eastern Europe's staunch backing for the US hardline stance. Blair told European critics of the Iraq war that issues such as terrorism and weapons proliferation "are the modern security threats: they threaten Europe as much as the United States."

Blair said any disagreement must be managed carefully and should not "explode into a diplomatic dogfight."

At a news conference during his Warsaw visit he dismissed as "completely absurd" suggestions that western intelligence agencies invented evidence of Saddam' Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to justify the war in Iraq.

He said he had "no doubt at all" that weapons would be found in the end.

However the British leader also had stern words for the more belligerent voices in Washington saying that they should recognise Europe wanted "to be America's partner, not its servant."

Poland, a NATO member which is on course to join the European Union on May 1, 2004, contributed about 200 troops to the Iraq war.

As a reward, the central European nation of 38.3 million people has been given responsibility for ensuring security in a sector of post-war Iraq between Basra and Baghdad as part of the stabilisation force being put in place by Washington and London.