There would be no better present for the new millennium than lasting peace in Northern Ireland, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said in London yesterday. Commenting on the pace of political developments in Northern Ireland, Mr Blair told MPs during Question Time in the House of Commons that the people of Northern Ireland had witnessed events they would not have believed possible a short time ago. "I think the most heartening thing is the sense right across the communities in Northern Ireland that there is, for the first time, some confidence and hope about the future," he said.