Blair returns to normal schedule

Mr Blair is now back in Downing Street

Prime Minister Tony Blair has returned to work full time on Tuesday in the wake of a heart scare.

Doctors ordered Mr Blair to rest for 24 hours after hospital treatment for an irregular heartbeat on Sunday.

He spent Monday behind his desk at Number 10 but his spokesman said he was not "working at full throttle" and left Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to deliver a Commons statement.

The spokesman said Mr Blair is "fit, fine, in good spirits and 100% recovered" and on Wednesday he travelled to Hillsborough for talks about the Northern Ireland peace process.

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On Wednesday will return to question time in the House of Commons and give a speech on public services.

He will hold his regular monthly press conference on Thursday after chairing a meeting of the cabinet. He will then set off on a regional tour.

Mr Blair, 50, has never suffered heart problems before but was taken to London's Hammersmith Hospital on Sunday, after complaining of chest pains at his Chequers residence and first going to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Rest ordered

Doctors diagnosed supra ventricular tachycardia - a condition which causes heartbeat irregularities and shortness of breath - and ordered the father-of-four to rest for a day.

BLAIR'S HEART PROBLEM 1: Tony Blair's condition, supraventricular tachycardia, is a non-life threatening heart rhythm disturbance caused by rapid electrical activity in the upper heart (the atria) 2: The same condition can affect the lower heart (the ventricles) as ventricular tachycardia - usually a sign of underlying heart disease Q&A: Blair's health problems Blair's need to shrug off scare

He was kept in hospital for nearly five hours, was sedated for 20 minutes and treated with a procedure called cardio version, which uses a small electric shock to make the heartbeat return to normal.

Mr Blair's official spokesman told journalists at Monday's lobby briefing the treatment had been "completely successful" and his health had suffered no lasting damage.

"He is fit, fine, in good spirits and 100% recovered," the spokesman said on Monday.

"I have seen him this morning and I have to say, if I hadn't known that he had been in hospital, I wouldn't have known from seeing him this morning.

"He has been told to take it a bit easier for today, which is why Jack Straw is making a statement, but he is holding meetings in Downing Street as usual."

The spokesman said Mr Blair, who "takes lots of exercise" and "looks after himself", had been treated for "a relatively minor condition".

HAVE YOUR SAY Tony is perhaps working too hard, but this is probably an attempt to repair the numerous mistakes he has made. Dale Wilson, UK Send us your comments

His appetite for the job was undiminished and there was no reason for the condition to recur, although he will probably see another doctor in the next few weeks.

"This appears to be one of those things that affects a comparatively large number of people. It's nothing that comes even close to a serious cardiac problem," the spokesman added.

Mr Blair has been under a great deal of stress in recent months, particularly after the strains of the war in Iraq.

But experts said the condition was more likely to be something that simply affected some people rather than others, instead of being linked to stress.