Blair's Asian trip begins and ends on stormy note

Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed yesterday for quick progress toward greater democracy in Hong Kong after mass protests and stressed the need for stability in one of the world's top financial centres.

Blair, at the end of a Far East tour, left the former British colony as a powerful typhoon approached.

But he is flying into a raging political storm back home over the suicide of a weapons expert at the centre of a row over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Blair said Britain was committed to full elections in Hong Kong, which has been rocked in recent weeks by mass protests against the China-backed government and a planned anti-subversion bill.

Earlier, Blair discussed the bill with embattled Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa at the mansion of former British governors and said he believed Hong Kong and China were committed to resolving the territory's biggest political crisis in years.

"Our position has consistently been that we hope that Hong Kong will make early progress towards the Basic Law's ultimate aim of election of the chief executive and all members of the legislature council by universal suffrage," Blair said in a luncheon speech, referring to Hong Kong's constitution.

"Hong Kong, if it handles the next few years well, can also be an example of how political progress can be made without damaging essential stability," he said.

Blair left Hong Kong a day ahead of schedule because of Typhoon Imbudo.

He set out on his Asian trip eager to tackle the North Korean nuclear crisis, meet China's new leaders and build trade ties in the Asia-Pacific.

But his whirlwind tour, which included Japan and South Korea, was overshadowed by the suicide of British defence expert David Kelly, at the centre of accusations Blair's government had hyped intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq.