Tony Blair's wife publishes autobiography; Iraq war a topic

Cherie Blair also says her husband decided to run again in 2005 because he was not confident that his successor, Gordon Brown, would carry on with Blair's policies on schools, hospitals and pensions.

"Among many others, I was convinced that if Tony failed to stand for a third term, it would be seen as a response to the negative criticism of the war," Mrs. Blair wrote in "Cherie Blair: Speaking for Myself." Excerpts were published Saturday in The Times and The Sun newspapers.

"It would be read by history as a tacit admission of failure. ... I always felt strongly that he should not apologize for something he believed to be right. He could regret the lives lost in Iraq but he should not apologize for taking the right decision for the country."

She said Blair's confidence had been shaken by Labour Party losses in local council elections in 2004.

"There was no doubt that in April 2004, with Gordon rattling the keys above his head, Tony suffered a crisis of confidence as to whether he was still an asset to the Labour Party," she wrote.

"I remained determined that Tony was not going to resign, that he was going to fight the next election and that he was going to win it ..."

Labour did win, though with a smaller majority in the House of Commons than it had won in the landslides of 1997 and 2001.

Brown succeeded Blair as prime minister in June 2007. Mrs. Blair's book appeared days after Brown suffered even worse results in local elections. Opinion polls now show Labour lagging far behind the opposition Conservative Party.

Tension between Blair and Brown, who headed the Treasury, was a running theme of Blair's decade in power.