Blair heads to country home to recover from operation

The prime minister said he intends to serve a full third term.
LONDON (AP) -- Looking relaxed, Prime Minister Tony Blair left for his country residence Saturday to spend the weekend recovering from an operation to correct an irregular heartbeat, his office said.
There was no change in his condition from late Friday, when the prime minister returned to his official Downing Street residence from the hospital and told reporters he was "absolutely fine," the spokesman said.
"He's going to be working on government papers over the weekend, but no formal meetings are planned," he said, adding that Blair, 51, would be back at his desk Monday and planned to make a scheduled trip to Africa on Tuesday.
But Blair's heart condition, which first came to public attention a year ago, has fueled persistent rumors in political circles and the press that Blair intends to step down within a couple of years of being re-elected in favor of his Treasury chief, Gordon Brown.
In a television interview Thursday night, Blair sought to end such speculation and said he intended to serve a full third term but would not seek a fourth term.
Time in office
If elections are called next year and Blair's Labour Party stays in power, that would put Blair in office until 2009 or at the latest 2010, surpassing former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 11-year stint in office.
A Blair ally dismissed a suggestion that the prime minister had agreed to make way for Brown and urged Brown supporters Saturday to stop speculating about a possible hand-over.
"There is not a shred of evidence to suggest that any deal was done last year. It is simply gossip," Jack Cunningham, a former minister in Blair's Cabinet, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"Frankly, it would help if others who have an idea about their own interests in the succession would just shut up and help him [Blair] to get on with governing the country."
President Bush telephoned his close ally Saturday from his campaign bus as it rolled through Ohio. White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush wanted to wish Blair a quick recovery and convey best wishes from him and first lady Laura Bush.
The London hospital that treated Blair said the risk of recurrence was very low and the prime minister was expected to make a rapid and complete recovery.
"The procedure was successful in eliminating the atrial flutter," Hammersmith Hospital in west London said in a statement.
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