British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Tuesday's press conference was aimed as a response to the opponents of war in Britain and Europe, among other places. During the press conference Blair seemed to by trying hard to convince the media and the British public opinion that his cooperation with the United States is based on the British national interests.

Tony Blair is facing heavy pressure at home for his support for U.S. policies regarding Iraq.

According to an opinion poll, 71 percent of Britons are opposed to a war against Iraq.

Moreover, more than 150 British deputies belonging to prime minister's own Labour Party oppose Blair's Iraq policy. Even some cabinet ministers have announced that they would quit the cabinet if Blair followed the United States in attacking Iraq.

Furthermore, Britain is facing opposition by European Union countries who castigate him for following U.S. policies blindly. At a recent meeting of the EU foreign ministers in The Netherlands, the top diplomats of 14 EU members called on Britain to coordinate its policies with the union instead of collaborating with the U.S. It seems that Blair's Tuesday press conference was arranged in a bid to ward off such pressures.

While responding to the criticisms, he still insisted on continued cooperation with the United States -- imparting a message to the world that he would follow Bush's warlike policies regardless of any opposing European sentiments.

While implicitly accepting that there is no concrete evidence to support the claim that Iraq poses a threat to British interests, he nevertheless said that in the future documents would be made available to the press, trying to shift the public opinion in favor of war.

He also admitted that the international coalition against terrorism would be weakened if it were limited to the United States and Britain.

Therefore, he announced that it was a policy of his government to preserve the coalition that fought the Afghan campaign.

It seems that international pressure has paid off and Blair has had to accept that before any military action UN inspectors must be allowed to go to Baghdad and resume their activities. This can be construed as a welcome change in the stance taken by Washington and London.

It must be borne in mind that public opinion in the Islamic countries is still against any military attack against Iraq and Blair's remarks have far from convinced any Muslims that the problem of Iraq can only be solved by war.