London: Britain's Tony Blair will focus on the fight against terrorism and climate change when he unveils the last package of laws of his premiership this week in an effort to salvage a legacy tarnished by the Iraq war.
His legislative programme, to be read to Parliament on Wednesday by Queen Elizabeth, aims to silence critics who say he is a lame duck leader of a government that has run out of steam.
Blair was forced in September to say he would step down within a year to quell a revolt in his Labour Party, fuelled in part by public and political opposition to the war in Iraq.
Keen to show he still means business, Blair will present a climate change bill on cutting greenhouse gas emissions as well as a plan to reform pensions, by restoring the link between rises in the basic state pension and earnings and boosting women's retirement income.
But the focus will be on security with bills to strengthen anti-terrorism powers and tackle organised and lower-level crime. There will also be proposals on controlling immigration.
Critics accuse Blair of playing politics with security by trying to portray new opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron as soft on crime and terrorism.
Cameron is trying to portray his resurgent party as more compassionate than before. Ministers say the warning last week by the head of Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 that Muslim extremists are plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain show the need for stronger police powers.
"I think that shows that the terror threat we face is very real," Blair's spokesman said on Monday of the MI5 warning.
But the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Trust said Labour's anti-terrorism laws to date had been "self-defeating and harmful" by having a disproportionate impact on Muslims.
"The combination of tough laws and tough talk ministers have adopted is divisive..." the Trust's report said.
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