Key points: Blair news conference

Tony Blair has held his latest monthly news conference in Downing Street. Here are the key points:

Asylum
• Mr Blair said the National Audit Office report on the reliability of the government's asylum figures showed "progress is real" in cutting the number of asylum claims.

• Pointing to the 20% cut in asylum figures for the first three months of 2004, he said: "These asylum figures show that the dramatic progress that we made last year when we halved the number of asylum applications has continued."

  Iraq

• Both the coalition and Iraq were agreed that coalition troops should remain as long as they were needed to maintain the security needed for the power handover due on 30 June.

• "The people who will decide whether the troops stay or not will be the Iraqi government," said the prime minister, saying there would be a "full transfer of sovereignty".

• Mr Blair said the Iraqi government would have "final political control" on coalition military action - but nobody would be able to tell British troops to do things they did not want to do.

• Whether Iraqi troops were properly equipped, trained or led was something "we have to resolve", he said.

  I personally believe the intelligence we received was accurate Tony Blair on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction

• Mr Blair said no decisions had been made about sending more British troops to Iraq. He added: "We keep the requirement for troop levels under constant review."

• He went on: "We will stay until we get the job done."

• The prime minister said he was optimistic about the prospects for a new UN resolution on the power transfer in Iraq.

• Asked if he feared voters would use the June elections to protest about Iraq, Mr Blair said he thought people realised their local services and regional MEP were important in their own right.

• He was challenged on whether he now believed he was duped by Iraqi opposition leaders about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

  It is absolutely wrong and unfortunately if people end up think Afghanistan has made no progress in the last two to three years Tony Blair

• Mr Blair replied: "I personally believe the intelligence we received was accurate. The conundrum of what has happened will be something that is resolved in due course."

• He urged people to wait for more reports from the Iraq Survey Group.

• Insurgents in Iraq were not "resistance fighters" but were trying to stop Iraqis having a proper government, said the prime minister.

• Mr Blair said that the leaders of the al-Qaeda knew "if we succeed in Iraq, they fail".

  Spain

• The prime minister insisted his relationship with the new Spanish Government would be "just fine", despite their differences over the Iraq war.

  Leadership speculation

• Mr Blair refused to add to what he had previously said about how long he intends to stay in Downing Street, joking that journalists liked to play a "parlour game" with their questions on the issue.

  Olympics

• The prime minister said he was "cautiously optimistic" about London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics because the government had always known there would be concerns about transport.

• Plans for further investment in the capital's transport network would be unveiled in the next few months.

  Afghanistan

• Mr Blair said: "It is absolutely wrong and unfortunate if people end up thinking Afghanistan has made no progress in the last two to three years."

• The most telling statistic was that 2.5m refugees had returned to the country, he said.

• A recent international donors' conference had pledged $8bn in investment for Afghanistan, so it was "hardly a forgotten country" as some commentators had suggested, argued Mr Blair.

  Petrol prices

• The prime minister dismissed suggestions that high fuel duties were most to blame for rising pump prices in Britain.

• The international situation, including high fuel demand in China and the United States, was driving up oil prices, he said.

• In the seven years of Labour government, fuel duty had risen 10p compared with 17p in the last seven years under the Conservatives.