Blair rules out public medical

The 50-year-old shrugged off health scare

Tony Blair has said he does not intend to follow the US presidential example of holding a publicised annual health check.

The prime minister was speaking during his monthly televised media briefing - four days after spending five hours in hospital being treated for an irregular heartbeat.

Asked if he would follow President Bush's example, Mr Blair said: "No".

He added: "We have different practices in this country to the United States and, as you know, I don't follow them slavishly in all respects."

Mr Blair was asked how long he intended to stay as prime minister and who he might want to succeed him.

He replied: "I think you are chancing your arm a bit. I mean, I know I had the medical scare at the weekend but my defences aren't down that much."

On whether I'm going on and on or I'm not going on and on, I refer you to all the answers I have given on previous occasions which I can't remember off the top of my head Tony Blair Blair: Point-by-point

He said the government would "carry on with the programme of reform because it is right".

It was put to him that Gordon Brown had made a blatant attempt to offer a rival type of leadership for the Labour Party at their Bournemouth conference.

Mr Blair replied: "Gordon and I will carry on working in partnership, as we always do.

"On whether I'm going on and on or I'm not going on and on, I refer you to all the answers I have given on previous occasions which I can't remember off the top of my head but I'm sure you can look them up.

"I'll just leave it that whatever I said before, I say again."

Identity cards

In a wide-ranging media conference which Mr Blair said he hoped would concentrate on policy, the prime minister said he did not back the idea of replacing Council Tax with a local income tax.

The prime minister said that it would add about 6p to people's Income Tax rates, adding that it was more important to tackle the reasons behind Council Tax rises.

His comments came the day after local government minister Nick Raynsford said local income tax was one of three options being considered for future funding of local government.

Mr Blair began by outlining a variety of measures planned to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour.

In response to another question Mr Blair said he backed the idea of identity cards in principle, saying that the question was whether a cost effective and workable system could be found.

Top-up fees

He said that the waves of global migration made a secure system of identification necessary and mean that the argument had moved beyond the traditional civil liberty points.

More needed to be done to tackle the issue of asylum, said Mr Blair, adding that new measures were currently being planned and would be made public "in the not-too-distant future".

On the Middle East, Mr Blair said the roadmap was not dead and was the only way through the difficulties.

Mr Blair restated that there were no plans to introduce a capital gains tax on house sales - reports to the contrary were "simply wrong", he said.

On top-up fees the government was examining how to help less wealthy students cope with university top-up fees but, said Mr Blair, it was too early to specify what proportion could be exempted.