Tony Blair has vowed to "last the course" if he wins the next general election.

In a round of interviews following his keynote conference address, the prime minister sought to play down suggestions of Cabinet divisions over the party's election strategy.

And he insisted that removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right thing to do.

Interviewed on GMTV, Blair hinted he would serve a full third term.

"I have always said to people that I don't intend doing anything other than lasting the course," he said.

"So the decision ultimately is for the British people, and they have got to decide whether they want us to continue doing this job or not."

The decision to make Alan Milburn responsible for the party's election strategy was not a snub to the chancellor, Blair insisted in a separate interview with the BBC.

"Alan Milburn has come in to do a very specific job in government and a job for the Labour Party," he told the Today programme.

"It doesn't change in any shape or form what Gordon will be doing in any election campaign."

On Iraq, the prime minister insisted the war was "a result of Saddam's failure to comply with UN resolutions and that non-compliance still stands".

"We took the view - we took it at the time, we take it now - that the war was justified legally because he remained in breach of the UN resolutions," he added.

"Let's be clear, the only reason the UN inspectors were back in Iraq at all was because we had 200,000 British and American troops down there. We couldn't leave them there for ever."