Blair's face shows the strain

The strain of Tony Blair's gruelling schedule of global diplomacy and increasing trouble on the home front is clearly showing today.

His collar askew, there are dark lines under his eyes and the drawn expression is that of a man exhausted by his unrelenting workload.

After one of the most tiring weeks any Prime Minister has faced, he turned up for a seminar in Downing Street this morning late and looking slightly dishevelled.

Photographers were allowed in for a few minutes to take pictures before he made his excuses and headed off for his next round of talks.

Since the 11 September crisis began he has travelled more than 40,000 miles across the world on 31 flights, many of them overnight trips, to meet 17 world leaders.

When he returned yesterday from Washington he was confronted with a series of domestic problems, including the mounting controversy over Transport Secretary Stephen Byers and Railtrack, the sudden resignation of Henry McLeish as Scottish First Minister and the loss of one of his most trusted aides Anji Hunter.

There is concern in Westminster that he may be stretching himself too far and should ease up in order to re-charge his batteries and retain his grip on events here and abroad.

But today the pressure did not ease. After the Downing Street seminar on youth justice, he was into talks with Spanish premier Jose Maria Aznar over the difficult issue of British sovereignty over Gibraltar.

He was then taking the Spanish premier to his country residence Chequers for dinner and more discussion. Nor will there be any let-up over the weekend. Both tomorrow and Sunday will be spent at Remembrance Day events.

The Prime Minister's punishing week began on Sunday, when a "mini-summit" was held with European leaders. On Monday Mr Blair travelled by train to Birmingham for an important speech to business leaders at the CBI.

Wednesday was frantically hectic, when he faced the Opposition in the Commons before heading off on Concorde to Washington for a meeting with President Bush.

He returned at 3am British time to London on a scheduled flight.

Yesterday turned out to be the most punishing day yet, as he was bombarded by problems back home and continued to meet world leaders, among them President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

In between the hectic schedule, his officials have tried to make some time for him to see Cherie and the four children, not least one-year-old Leo, but that private time is inevitably squeezed by the need to be fully briefed on the military situation.

Next week Mr Blair will publish a fresh dossier of evidence against Osama bin Laden in a clear sign that No 10 fears it is losing the propaganda war. The document will quote Bin Laden's own words from a series of propaganda videos which Downing Street claims incriminitate him in the terrorist attacks of 11 September. However, without fresh intelligence evidence, the dossier is unlikely to satisfy critics who argue that there is still no proof of his guilt. The videos, filmed by al Qaeda since America began its attacks on Afghanistan, have been widely circulated in the Muslim world.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said he wanted the public to "understand the kind of things that he has been chucking out from his cave on these little video tapes".

The spokesman said: "We get a sense of somebody who is actually losing it.

"He has been losing it because in the end he does not have any political, intellectual underpinning. He is just a terrorist.

"The more people get to hear the kind of things he has been saying, the more they will understand why he has to be dealt with."

In a second effort to shore up world opinion, the Government today unveiled a glossy publication called Never Again which includes photos of the World Trade Center attacks, and quotes from Arab leaders supporting the coalition against terrorism.