BEIJING, May 2 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended his integrity against fresh attacks over Iraq in Britain.

    Opinion polls show the furore over the war has failed to erode his lead just days before a general election. With Britons going to polls only three days away, the controversy over Iraq continues.

    Tony Blair hit back after his rivals seized on a leaked memo of a government meeting published in The Sunday Times that indicated he was mulling ways to oust Saddam Hussein in July 2002, eight months before the US-led invasion of Iraq.

    Blair said: "If the UN resolution had been adhered to by Saddam, then that would have been the end of it, despite the fact that there was the most appalling regime in Iraq. But the fact is, as is clear from the evidence subsequently, he never had any intention of giving up his ambitions both in respect of his own country and in respect of the region."

    Blair said his political opponents' persistent focus on the war meant they had nothing to say about crucial election issues.

    And opinion polls show Iraq is not high among voters' priorities.

    Blair's Labour Party remains between four and eight points over the Conservative Party, though his huge parliamentary majority is expected to shrink.

    (Source: CCTV.com)