LONDON, Oct 20: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is “100 per cent recovered” a day after receiving hospital treatment for a heart problem, and faces a busy schedule this week, his official spokesman said on Monday.

As sections of the press asked how long 50-year-old Blair would carry on in his high-pressure job, the spokesman insisted the prime minister was “fit, fine, in good spirits and 100 percent recovered”.

Despite doctors’ advice to rest for 24 hours, Blair was “getting on with the job and his appetite for the job is the same today as it was this time last week,” the spokesman added.

Stepping in for the prime minister, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was to later give a statement to parliament on last week’s European Union summit in Brussels.

Blair was “not working at full throttle today” but still chairing meetings in Downing Street, according to his spokesman.

On Tuesday, he would be back to his normal schedule, attending a regular audience with Queen Elizabeth, then facing a weekly question-and-answer session in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, on Wednesday.

The spokesman told AFP Blair’s health would not prevent him from chairing any final meetings needed to finalise a deal between Catholic and Protestant parties in Northern Ireland and allow the province’s suspended assembly to be restored.

Blair, a father of four, was taken to hospital in London Sunday after complaining of chest pains. Doctors diagnosed an irregular cardiac rhythm and gave him a treatment known as cardio-conversion to regulate his heartbeat.—AFP