BRITAIN: Ms Cherie Blair, wife of the British prime minister, has mounted a fresh attack on the legality of some of the Bush administration's decisions by challenging the legal basis of the imprisonment of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
UK government sources conceded yesterday that she did make the criticisms, in a lecture to law students at Harvard University, for which she was not paid. But it said her remarks should not be interpreted as political.
In a previous lecture, she criticised the US administration's refusal to sign up to the international criminal court.
Officials said Ms Blair's latest remarks should be read in the context of her role as a human rights lawyer.
She described the US supreme court's decision to give legal protection to two Britons at Guantanamo Bay, as "profoundly important" and a "significant victory for human rights and the international rule of law".
The court struck out President Bush's claim that foreign prisoners were not entitled to the protection of the courtsand therefore had no right to challenge their detention.