Cherie faces new storm over speech on Iraq

Cherie Blair was hit by new controversy Saturday night after organisers of her latest speaking engagement said she had agreed to discuss human rights in the Middle East during a lecture highlighting the plight of children in Iraq.

The speech, at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on Tuesday, raises the prospect that Mrs Blair again will lambast President Bush over his human rights policies, which she rebuked in a carefully-worded speech at Harvard in 2004 which caused uproar.

A Downing Street spokeswoman maintained she would confine her remarks in Orlando to the legal right of women and children to "safe water, sanitation and hygiene," without mentioning Iraq.

But an organiser of the event insisted that Mrs Blair was aware when she accepted the offer to speak that the lecture was part of a series concentrating on the Middle East and said she would "focus" on the rights of Iraqi children.

Johanna Marizan, of the Global Perspectives Office at the university, said: "She will talk about the human rights of children in the Middle East.

"We have told her that Iraq is part of the theme and she will focus on what is happening in Iraq. I think she has given a similar talk before.

"I understand that is one of her specialities.

"Because of her husband's position, I don't know if she will be able to discuss politics. She will focus on human rights issues."