CANBERRA, March 27: British Prime Minister Tony Blair sparked a fresh bout of conjecture over his future on Monday when he said it may have been a mistake to rule out a fourth term.

Newspapers also reported that Mr Blair, facing media calls to resign over a ‘cash-for-favours’ row, had decided when to stand aside but that he was not yet revealing the date.

The prime minister, on a visit to Australia, was asked in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation if his determination not to seek another term was a mistake that had left him open to calls for his resignation.

“I think what happens when you get into your third term and you are coming up to your 10th year is that it really doesn’t matter what you say,” said Mr Blair, in office since 1997.

“You are going to get people saying it should be time for a change or ‘when are you going?’ or ‘who’s taking over?’”

The announcement not to seek a fourth term was ‘an unusual thing for me to say, but people kept asking me the question so I decided to answer it. Maybe that was a mistake’.

On the eve of a heart operation in 2004 and under pressure from the fallout of the Iraq invasion, Mr Blair ruled out a fourth term but said he intended to serve a full third term.

That could take him to 2010, but most commentators expect him to hand over to his presumed successor, Finance Minister Gordon Brown, in the next year or two.

Several analysts believe Mr Blair is particularly keen to see through reforms to the National Health Service, due by 2008.

Some also think he wants to stay in office longer than Margaret Thatcher’s 11-1/2 years, which would mean hanging on until the end of November that same year.

Some commentators think Mr Blair’s comments signal an intention to stay on until nearer 2010, although others think the pressure is building and that he may have to go within a year.—Reuters