Tony Blair has refused to appear before a Commons committee and give evidence in person on the links between Libya and the IRA.

The former prime minister could be summoned by MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee after the request for him to appear was turned down.

Mr Blair, who was a key player in diplomatic talks with Colonel Gadaffi while in No 10, said he had provided written evidence which included all the information he had.

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Tony Blair and Colonel Gadaffi had a close diplomatic relationship. Mr Blair has refused to give further evidence to the Northern Ireland select committee on the links between Libya and IRA

He insisted attempts to 'implicate him' in efforts to block IRA victims from receiving compensation were 'without foundation'.

Colonel Gaddafi gave arms to the republican group during the Troubles and Semtex from Libya became the IRA's most devastating threat during that time, causing the loss of many lives.

In his letter to committee chairman Laurence Robertson, Mr Blair said: 'These continued attempts to implicate me in deliberately trying to stop IRA victims receiving compensation are, as I have made very clear, without foundation.

'I am therefore respectfully declining your invitation to appear before the committee as I have already given you the facts of the matter in my written submission and I do not believe simply repeating what I have already said in person will do anything to advance the cause of the victims and their families.'

Links between the IRA and Libya date back to 1972 when Gaddafi praised the group.

He later provided the IRA with the weaponry to wage an armed conflict which lasted 30 years and claimed many lives.

The dictator was ousted from power in 2011 and later killed during an assault on Sirte, his birthplace.

During his time in Number 10, Mr Blair was instrumental in a process of diplomatic detente with the Libyan dictator.

Mr Blair met Gaddafi in his desert tent in 2004, as the north African country began its return to the international community after years of isolation for supporting terrorism.

As part of the process, Gaddafi renounced weapons of mass destruction, bringing to a halt programmes to develop nuclear and chemical arms.

Mr Blair outlined his reasons for 'respectfully declining' the invitation to appear in a brief letter to committee chairman Laurence Robertson. The MPs could choose to summon the former prime minister

Mr Robertson asked Mr Blair to appear because MPs wanted to 'explore' his written evidence in 'some depth'

In his written submission in December, Mr Blair told Mr Robertson that Libya had made a number of admissions regarding the extent of its links with IRA terrorism between 1992 and 1995 - before he entered Number 10.

Mr Blair said: 'The issue of compensation for the victims of IRA terrorism made possible by the provision of material by the Gaddafi regime was not an issue raised with me, as far as I am aware.

'And of course a statutory compensation scheme for victims of terrorism in Northern Ireland was already in existence, having been set up by a previous government.

'The needs of victims were therefore being addressed through the existing structures and mechanisms.'

He said he understood why victims of IRA terrorism would have wanted their claims raised at the same time as the 2008 compensation settlement of the Lockerbie passenger jet bombing.

Committee chairman Laurence Robertson could choose to summon Mr Blair to give evidence despite the former prime minister declining to give oral evidence

Mr Blair said for the Americans this was never going to be made part of the settlement since they were focused on their own citizens affected by Lockerbie and a Berlin discotheque bombing and were precluded legally from such an action.

He also pointed out that 'I was not even in government at the time' of the 2008 settlement.

Mr Blair could be formally summoned to give evidence if the committee decides that his written submission is insufficient.

A spokesman for the committee said the issue would be considered when the MPs meet on Thursday.

'They are going to consider it at their next meeting, when they will make a decision on the next step,' the spokesman said.

It emerged last week that Colonel Gaddafi warned Tony Blair that if he was removed from power Islamic extremists would take over Libya with the ultimate goal of conquering Europe.

Newly released transcripts of 2011 phone calls between the pair reveal the ousted Libyan leader's anxieties about the growing influence Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were having in Africa and the Middle East.

He warned jihadis were already wreaking havoc in the North African state despite his governance - and that if he was to be toppled it would pave the way for the rise of an Islamic State that would open the doors to a deluge of migrants heading for mainland Europe.

Blair contacted the dictator and urged him to flee for a 'safe place' in two calls on February 25 2011, eight months before he was beaten to death after being found in a sewer.

Transcripts of the conversations were published for the first time yesterday and MPs said the dictator's fears extremists would take Libya may have been 'wrongly ignored' because he was usually 'delusional'.