Tony Blair has mounted a vigorous defence of his foreign policy over the past ten years and warned his successor not to allow any weakening of Britain's alliance with the United States, even if he has to defy the drift of public opinion.

Making his twice-yearly appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee, the Prime Minister said that he had deliberately pursued a "highly interventionist" foreign policy, which included sending troops into action in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.

But, with a clear eye on his historical legacy, he argued that it was only through the UK's willingness to embrace 'hard power' that it enjoyed 'soft power' and the influence it had enjoyed over the debates on tackling climate change and writing down African debt.

It was widely expected to be Mr Blair's last appearance before the group of select committee heads, but its chairman, Alan Williams, the Labour MP for Swansea West, confirmed that he had agreed to one final session after announcing the date of his departure from Downing Street.

The 2-1/2 hour session was wide-ranging, touching on issues such as health and public services, the environment and new gay rights laws, but much of it was focused on the UK's future foreign policy as the Prime Minister called for a public debate on whether Britain should continue on the path he had set for the past decade.

“I think that is a huge question for the future. Do we want to continue on that path or do we want, for example, to choose a more European way over an American way? That is the debate that is going on there,” Mr Blair told the committee.

“I would say for us now the critical thing is to say, given what foreign policy that we have had over the last decade - highly interventionist, based on hard and soft power, with those alliances, Europe and America - is this the right way forward for our country or should we take a step back, maybe, and not be engaged in these international issues as we have been?”

He added: “Before we distance ourselves from America, either as Britain or as Europe, we need to really work out whether that is a sensible thing to do or not. I am the person above all who can give evidence as to the difficulty and sometimes the political penalty you pay for a close relationship with the US, but we shouldn’t give that up in any set of circumstances.

“If we do want to give it up, then my plea to people is for God’s sake do it consciously. Don’t kind of drift into it just because there is a strain of public opinion that moves in that direction. It is a big, big thing for us to decide as a country.”

Mr Blair refuted a suggestion that the UK's foreign policy under his premiership had undermined its ability to "win hearts and minds." He said that the relationship with America is what opens a lot of doors everywhere, even in the Middle East".

"I think there are countries around the world that have retreated to a soft-power approach and I don't think we should do that," he added. "You only get the ability to exercise the soft power properly if you're prepared to do the difficult things."

On specific foreign-policy issues, Mr Blair accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons capability in defiance of the United Nations and of deliberately fostering sectarianism and conflict in its region - although he also held out an olive branch by saying that “a whole series of doors” would open for Tehran if it changed its strategy.

“Nobody is talking about military intervention in respect of Iran, but people are increasingly alarmed and concerned at the strategy they appear to be pursuing,” he said.

“Nobody is talking or planning military intervention and that’s not what the international community wants, it’s not what we want. But it’s important Iran understands that at the moment it is doing two groups of things that are really unsettling the international community.”

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