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Tony Blair to receive US highest civilian award

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-06 23:37

LONDON - Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to receive the United States' highest civilian award next week, Sky news reported Tuesday.

Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair speaks during a news conference after the Middle East peace Quartet meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, November 9, 2008 as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looks on. [Agencies]

Blair will be presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony on January 13, during President George W. Bush's last week in office, the report said.

He will receive the award along with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, "for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.

"Their efforts to bring hope and freedom to people around the globe have made their nations, America and the world community a safer and more secure world," she said, calling all three leaders "staunch allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorism."

Blair was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States' other highest civilian honour, in 2003, for his support of the US invasion of Iraq, but he has not collected it yet.

However, foreign affairs spokesman for Britain's Liberal Democratic Party, Edward Davey, said: "Tony Blair should be spending next week helping to fix the mess in Gaza, not receiving an award for the biggest foreign policy disaster in recent history and his silence over Guantanamo Bay."

Blair, who stepped down in 2007, now serves as Middle East peace envoy for the Quartet, which includes Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.