Byers rushes home to chaos

Downing Street was today forced to launch a vigorous defence of Tony Blair's international peace mission, amid claims he is turning his back on the chaotic state of Britain's railways.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair remained "relentlessly focused" on processing domestic issues - with transport at the top of the list - despite his frequent trips abroad since 11 September.

"All prime ministers go abroad - it's part of their job," the spokesman added. Mr Blair, now in Pakistan where he is attempting to pull the country back from the brink of war with India, has faced a growing tide of criticism over his absences from the home front.

The Government knew it had received a clear message from the British people in the general election to improve public services and Mr Blair was said to be "absolutely focused" on this and not to be at all "complacent".

Meanwhile, Downing Street also defended the decision to charge former BBC director general John Birt with drawing up a report on the chaotic state of transport in the UK. Mr Blair appointed Lord Birt to Downing Street's Forward Strategy Unit with a brief to "think the unthinkable" about ailing public services.

The move appeared to have been made over the head of beleaguered Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. The Downing Street spokesman said, however, that Mr Blair still had full confidence in Mr Byers, who cut short a controversial winter break in India and was back at his Whitehall desk shortly before noon today.

The holiday - first revealed in the Evening Standard - saw Mr Byers come under intense fire for "going to ground" at a time when 150,000 strike-hit rail passengers suffered stoppages in freezing temperatures.

The Tories today claimed Lord Birt's new role was the "final nail in Stephen Byers's coffin".

Lord Birt has already completed the draft opening chapters of his report, entitled Understanding The Realities. These are understood to detail the massive shortcomings affecting transport in Britain - including the most clogged-up roads and the least electrified rail system in the European Union, as well as a crippling lack of investment. Lord Birt attended a one-day Whitehall seminar, staged to allow him to "read himself" into transport, in November. The event saw experts queuing up to attack government policy - including part-privatisation plans such as those for the Tube.

Leaked Cabinet Office minutes of the seminar show Lord Birt was told: "Private finance would not provide alternatives to public funding, just spread the bills. A more realistic funding regime required an adequate and predictable contribution from the public purse."

Mr Byers will within weeks release the findings of a study by accountants Ernst & Young into whether private bids to take over the running of Tube lines offer value for money.

Speculation is growing that the Government will use the report as cover for staging an embarrassing Uturn and handing over all or part of the network to Ken Livingstone's Transport for London.