Tony's summit jottings

At first glance they may look like the distracted scribblings of a bored schoolboy whose mind is not on his lessons. But these are in fact jottings by Prime Minister Tony Blair on how to tackle global poverty.

The page of scribbled notes was made during a debate between Bill Gates, Bono, South African president Thabo Mbeki and Bill Clinton at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Handwriting analysts and psychologists believe a person's doodles and style of writing contain clues to their character and attitude to problems.

Psychologist Elaine Quigley has analysed the note and concludes that it shows our Prime Minister is a daydreamer hoping for the best.

"He is struggling to concentrate, but he knows he will get to the bottom of the problems in time.

"That's Teflon Tony. The most readable of his doodles are the points that he believes will catch

the public interest," she said. Ms Quigley claims the boxes Blair has drawn round words such as "taxes, rich world" and "international" show self control and a practical turn of mind.

On the other hand, his circles show a daydreamer, while his looped letters show he is sensitive to his image and aware of criticism. Some may say the fact Mr Blair does not seem to have mastered joined-up writing is deeply suspect, however Ms Quigley maintains that his disconnected letters show a determined writer.

A doodle of goalposts in the bottom righthand corner indicates a constructive and practical approach to problems, she said, while his optimism is indicated by the upwards slant of the words.

Of course, a rather more obvious clue to Mr Blair's state of mind leaps from the page.

On it are scribbled key words such as "debt cancellation, global vaccine, trade, debt and G8".

The handwriting may be messy, but the content is pretty much what one would expect from a world leader concerned about the plight of Africa and economic reform.