LONDON, May 16 (UPI) -- Before leaving London to visit U.S. President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he has no regrets about the nations' close ties.
In an interview with NBC, the 53-year-old British leader who announced his resignation last week was asked if he would have been so loyal to Bush's plans to attack Iraq and unseat Saddam Hussein if he had known then what he knew now, Blair was guarded.
"I would make the same decision to remove Saddam, yes," he said.
Blair said he had "got used to" media criticism in Britain for supporting Bush even after claims of so-called weapons of mass destruction" proved unfounded.
"I've never had any doubt, since Sept. 11 (2001), that our place was, as I said at the time, shoulder to shoulder with America," Blair said.
Blair flew to Washington Wednesday for dinner at the White House, and in a break from tradition was to stay overnight rather than at the British Embassy.
The leaders were scheduled for closed-door talks Thursday before making what is likely their last joint appearance at a news conference. Blair steps down from office next month.
