"In opposition, Blair promised a publicly-owned railway, an ethical foreign policy and full labour laws.

"He has delivered privatisation, illegal wars and the harshest anti-union legislation in western Europe."

As the delegates left Mr Blair said: "Thank you very much for that introduction - more or less."

He began his speech by paying respect to the British Armed Forces who had lost their lives in recent conflicts.

It brought cries of "shame" and "bring them home" from some delegates.

Mr Blair went on to praise migrant workers from Poland and other Eastern European countries.

He said they were good for the British economy and should not be feared.

He also spoke about the challenge of globalisation and Britain's role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

At the end of his speech he was applauded for just 23 seconds.

Mr Blair's address came after a week of turmoil in the Labour Party over when he should leave Downing Street.

Under growing pressure he announced last week he would quit within a year - but refused to give a date.

Some rebel MPs want him to go now, while others say it should be next Spring before the May elections.

The man tipped to succeed him, Chancellor Gordon Brown, has condemned the protest by the RMT.

McAllister's lawyer Gerald L. Shargel said Monday he plans to try to call Rove as a witness, if the court allows it.

McAllister, of Jupiter, Fla., is accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud while he was chief executive officer and president of Millennium National Events Inc., an events promotion company. He was arrested in August 2005.

The government says McAllister and Millennium tried to inflate the price of the company's stock by "spreading false and misleading information" about the company via unsolicited e-mails, or spam, to potential investors. McAllister could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Shargel said McAllister's efforts to grow his company were "thwarted by the wrongful conduct of stock promoters," one of whom sent e-mails to a presidential Web site, georgewbush.com. That Web address currently connects automatically to the Republican National Committee, http://www.gop.com.

"Mr. Rove used his power and influence at the White House to seek quick punishment of Millennium, and therefore also Robert McAllister, for daring to spam the president's personal Web site," Shargel said.

The Daily News reported Sunday that e-mails, phone records and transcripts of phone conversations indicate Rove contacted McAllister and at least three stock promoters. The newspaper reported that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove "vaguely remembered" the e-mail onslaught but could not recall whether he or any other White House worker contacted the Department of Justice.

Chafee, who now faces Democratic nominee Sheldon Whitehouse, told cheering supporters in Providence the state's voters "said yes to thoughtfulness, yes to honesty and yes to independence."

The Rhode Island race topped the busiest primary day of the year, with nine states and the District of Columbia deciding party nominees for November races for Senate, House of Representatives and governor's offices.

Voters went to the polls in Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York rolled over token opposition to easily win the party's nomination for a second Senate term in what could be a tune-up for a potential 2008 White House bid.

The primaries set the stage for the November 7 battle for control of Congress, when Democrats will try to pick up the six Senate seats and 15 House seats that will give them majorities in each chamber.

Strategists looking for signs of an angry electorate found little in the result in Rhode Island, where Chafee avoided becoming the second incumbent U.S. senator to lose a primary in as many months.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a former Democratic vice presidential candidate, lost his party's August primary in Connecticut to an anti-war challenger.

BREAKS WITH BUSH

Chafee, the only Republican to vote against the
Iraq war, had frustrated some Republicans by breaking with Bush on a range of issues from tax cuts to conservative
Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination.

Laffey said Chafee was a big spender who was out of touch with Rhode Island, and the two candidates and their supporters pummeled each other in a series of harsh television ads.

In Maryland, 18 Democrats battled for the right to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes. Rep. Ben Cardin opened a lead over former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, with the winner facing Republican nominee Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in November.

Returns were slowed by problems with voting machines in the populous Washington suburbs.

In Washington, D.C., council member Adrian Fenty won the Democratic nomination for mayor over council chairwoman Linda Cropp. The nomination is tantamount to election in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.

"In the next four years, the mayor of the District of Columbia is going to be everybody's mayor -- no matter where you live, no matter how much money you make, no matter what your background is," Fenty said.

Arizona featured crowded primaries for both parties in the race to replace retiring Republican Jim Kolbe in a district bordering Mexico.

The parties also picked candidates in competitive Senate races in Arizona and Minnesota, and in other key House races in Wisconsin, New York and Minnesota.

Munqidh Al Faraun, the chief prosecutor, argued on Wednesday that Abdullah al-Amiri, the trial judge, was too lenient with defendants who had threatened lawyers and witnesses.

"You allowed this court to become a political podium for the defendants," Munqidh told al-Amiri. "The chief prosecutor's office requests the judge step down from this case."

The request follows witness accounts by Kurds on Tuesday, who told of crimes committed by the deposed government of Saddam two decades ago.

Saddam and six other former aides face genocide and other charges over the Anfal campaign of 1987-88, in which prosecutors say 182,000 Kurds were slaughtered.

Al-Amiri dismissed the prosecutor's demand, saying: "The judge should co-ordinate and make peace so nobody takes advantage of his fairness ... . I have been working in the judicial system for the past 25 years."

Political statements

During the trial, Saddam has often threatened the prosecutor and argued against witnesses.

Munqidh Al Faraun alleged that al-Amiri was giving the former president time to make irrelevant "political" statements.

"For instance yesterday, instead of taking legal action [against Hussein], you asked his permission to talk," he said.

"The action of the court leans toward the defendants."

An unidentified Kurdish civil attorney also told the court that Saddam "hurt our feelings" in his recent statements at the trial.

"His statements are illegal and must be stopped," she said.

Four witnesses told the court on Tuesday of mass graves where the bodies of their relatives - who went missing in Operation Anfal - were found two decades later.

One witness recalled his effort to survive a chemical attack allegedly carried out by Saddam's forces against the Kurdish population.

Saddam traded accusations with the Kurdish witnesses.

Ethnic division

Earlier this week, Saddam accused the Kurdish witnesses of trying to sow ethnic division in Iraq by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during the 1980s Anfal campaign.

Several witnesses gave accounts of how Kurds were bombed, imprisoned and buried in mass graves by Saddam's forces during the Anfal attacks which coincided wih the last years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

If convicted of genocide and other crimes, Saddam and his co-defendants could face death by hanging.

Kurdish witness Akram Ali Hussein told the court on Tuesday how his uncle's daughter was imprisoned by Saddam's forces deep in the south of the country near the Saudi border.

"She was driven mad and died after she saw her brother's body eaten by dogs," he said.

Three other witnesses also gave graphic descriptions of attacks carried out by Saddam's forces.

By the end of the session on Tuesday, Saddam showed obvious annoyance over the accusations.

"I noticed today that there were too many insults," he said. "When we put a lion in a cage, any coward can bring a stick and hit him."

Saddam described how he negotiated an end to a Kurdish uprising in 1975, after stopping what he said was an Iranian interference in Iraq's affairs.

Unpleasant things

"This means that between the Iraqis - Arabs and Kurds - there were no problems," Saddam said.

However, "there were some tragedies and in the fight some unpleasant things happened", he admitted.

Kurdish witnesses described receiving official notification in 2004 that the identity cards of their relatives who had disappeared in the Anfal campaign had been found in a mass grave in the north.

"I wanted to go to the mass grave to see their bodies but they prevented me," said Omar Khidr Amin, a taxi driver who lost 19 relatives. Kurdish authorities "told me it was not a good place to go", he said.

"I want to know what kind of Quran Saddam Hussein holds in his lap and how it is different from the kind in our mosques that he burned down," he said, before the judge silenced him.

"That's it? You're sure there's nothing else? You promise you're not keeping something back. You don't want to ask me about the military as well? You're sure?" Royal retorted.

The candidate - who is seeking the PS nomination for the April presidential election in an internal vote in November - has also come under fire from some in her party for proposing military-style camps to deal with youth offenders.

When Nolwenn failed to answer and instead turned to her neighbour in the audience, Royal went on: "Come on, come on. You're not obliged to ask permission from the boy next to you. You're a woman. You can speak freely."

Interviewed by AFP, Nolwenn said afterwards that she felt "somewhat humiliated" by the experience.

"My question seemed legitimate, it was not aggressive. It was a question that as a party member I have been asking myself. I did not understand the violence of her response," she said.

Royal appeared to be under the impression that Nolwenn's question was planted by the MJS leadership, but this was denied by its president Razzye Hammadi. "MJS members are not all brainless teletubbies," he said.

Nolwenn said that on Sunday evening Royal left a message on her telephone, expressing the view that Nolwenn was "worth more than the question you were put up to asking".

"I do not know if I should take that as an apology," she said.

Valérie Pecresse, spokesman for the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said Royal had lost her nerve.

"(Likely right-wing candidate) Nicolas Sarkozy and the UMP are putting forward ideas. Ségolène Royal is running after them. I am thinking about law-and-order, schools reform, the 35 hour week. Clearly this is causing her a few problems in the party.

"This weekend she had a row with the young Socialists. She lost her nerve, she got angry. I regret it because I think candidates should accept debate and dialogue, especially in their own political families," Pecresse said.