Michael Howard has quizzed the prime minister over the government's failure to tackle the MRSA superbug.

Answering for the government, Tony Blair conceded that the problem was "serious", but insisted that "we are not the only country with it however".

Howard said some 5,000 people a year die from the infection - double the number when Labour came to office.

In a low key session of prime minister's questions he went on to ask why the government did not have "a proper grasp" of the scale of the problem.

Blair said the government had introduced "mandatory reporting" of the problem in order to address the issue.

Howard, however, said that "government policy has actually made matters worse".

Charles Kennedy also pressed the prime minister on the same issue.

The Liberal Democrat leader told MPs that 50 per cent of NHS trusts found government targets inconsistent with infection control.

Criticising the government's response to the problem, Kennedy warned that cleanliness in hospitals "shouldn't be a target".

But Blair said it was "important that we have targets for hospitals".

He admitted there were problems but that should not "obliterate" the progress being made.