Blair names the day he'll step down: June 27

After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Thursday that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.

With stirring oratory cast as a personal testament, he declared: "I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call.

"But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country.

"I have been prime minister of the country for just over 10 years," he said. "In this job, in the world today, I think that is long enough for me, but more especially for the country.

"Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down.

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