With the fighting in Iraq winding down, the battle to win the peace has begun, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday.

He told the British Parliament that reconstruction of Iraq could be broken into three phases:

• Meeting the immediate Iraqi needs for food, water and medical care
• Establishing an interim Iraqi authority and identifying Iraqi leaders
• Having an elected government and new constitution in place within a year

Blair said he saw a "vital role" for the United Nations here.

Tony Blair in the British Commons

One of the main problems is disorder, he said, explaining that "some disorder ... is inevitable" when a brutal police state suddenly ends.

On the search for weapons of mass destruction, the ostensible reason for war, Blair said about seven of 146 sites have been examined.

He noted that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been vigorously trying to hide weapons before UN inspections began again last year.

Blair said now that the nature of Saddam's regime has become clearer, the war's justness can't be questioned. "The future is for us to make in a way that will stand the judgment of history," he said.

For international relations to truly progress, however, there will have to be some healing of relations between Europe and the United States, he said.

Commentators noted that support for the war in Britain is 64 per cent, remarkable considering that before the war began on March 19, anti-war demonstrations were some of the largest in British history.

With more than 10,000 local seats up for election in May, Blair's government is pulling ahead of his Conservative rivals in the polls – 41 to 29 per cent.

Some British papers are terming it the "Baghdad bounce."