U.K. not U.S.'s poodle, Blair says

LONDON — Facing hostile questioning in parliament, Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged on Tuesday some friction in his close relationship with President Bush and the political problems the friendship causes at home.

Blair used his sharpest language yet in the long-standing disagreement over the Bush administration's detentions at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they "must end." And the British leader said it was likely weapons of mass destruction may never be found in Iraq.

"I have to accept that we have not found them, that we may not find them," Blair told the House of Commons Liaison Committee. "We do not know what has happened to them. They could have been removed, they could have been hidden, they could have been destroyed."

Blair rejected any suggestion that the stockpiles never existed and that Saddam had not been a danger to the world.

"To go to the opposite extreme and say therefore no threat existed from Saddam Hussein would be a mistake," he said.

During a two-and-a-half hour session before a House of Commons committee, Blair was grilled about his relationship with Bush, and he defended the alliance in the war against terror, insisting it was in Britain's best interest.

"I am not daft about the politics of it. I can see, particularly in my own political family, it is a problem from time to time," said Blair, who has faced intense criticism within his Labour Party over the Iraq war.

"I don't think this country should ever let itself be ashamed of its relationship with the United States of America or believe that Britain is America's poodle."

Blair acknowledged two key differences with Bush: Washington's refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol on climate change; and the detention of four Britons at Guantanamo Bay.