Blair will not abolish AS-levels

Tony Blair rejected demands from teachers, pupils and the Conservatives to scrap the AS-level exam, which is blamed for overburdening sixth-formers.

He said he did not believe that students were being pushed to take too many examinations, despite claims that today's teenagers take more than any previous generation.

The Prime Minister came under fire from teachers and school heads during a 45-minute interview with Channel 4 News last night. They said the exam left sixth-formers stressed and unable to pursue activities like school plays.

But Mr Blair insisted: "There are all sorts of opinions that people are expressing about ASlevels now, but the reason for introducing them was to try and broaden what people study. Maybe there are changes we need to make in the way they are administered. It would be easy for me and I would make myself very popular if I said I would scrap this exam or that exam, but they are there for a purpose."

Mr Blair admitted there were too few good schools and that parents suffered from being unable to win places at the better schools.

"This is a serious problem, particularly in London," he told a Lewisham mother whose son could not get into the local school. "I mean, what is the answer to it? Obviously for your son it is a tragedy if he is not going to a school of his choice. The only solution is to put more good schools in the area." He described teaching at inner city schools as "an act of heroism".

On international matters, the Prime Minister twice refused to deny that President Bush kept him in the dark before urging Palestinians to replace Yasser Arafat.

Although he insisted that the special relationship was "solid, sound and working well", Mr Blair's failure to scotch the suggestion that he was out of the loop will fuel speculation that British influence over the White House is waning.

He was asked by interviewer Jon Snow if Mr Bush had told him in advance that he intended to cut off Mr Arafat in a speech before last week's G8 summit in Canada.

At first, he replied: "We have talked about the

Middle East process and his speech many times." When Mr Snow repeated his question, the Prime Minister paused and glared straight ahead for a few moments before deciding to ignore it.

Instead of answering, he defended Mr Bush's position, at one stage describing Mr Arafat as "tainted by terrorism". He said: "The American position has not changed in this. What the Americans actually said, and said in the speech, is that the Palestinians can choose who they like. But if the Americans are to take this process forward. . . they need serious people they can negotiate with who aren't tainted by terrorism."

Despite a string of policy disputes with the White House, ranging from the Middle East to steel tariffs, the Prime Minister said the Anglo-US relationship was "in fantastic shape".

Mr Blair refused to discuss whether he would be ready to commit British troops to a US-led attack on Iraq but dismissed claims that he had to restrain President Bush from launching military actions against Saddam Hussein in the immediate aftermath of 11 September.

? A new poll shows that Mr Blair is regarded by 62 per cent of people as "smug" and as untrustworthy by almost half. But 53 per cent think he is doing a good job.

The YouGov survey says 66 per cent of parents would put their children in private schools if they could afford it.