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Tony Blair has complained that the British are the only people in the world who do not appreciate him.

The former Prime Minister spends three out of four weeks travelling abroad.

This was because people outside the UK could accept it was possible to get rich as well as do good works, he said in an interview.

Mr Blair said: "It's not true nobody likes me! Reading the papers in Britain, you'd think I'd lost three elections rather than won them.

"There is a completely different atmosphere around me outside the country. People accept the work that you are doing, as it is.

"They don't see anything wrong with being successful financially and doing good work. If I did what these people who criticise me here wanted, I'd end up sitting in a corner. But that is never going to be me."

Mr Blair now combines lucrative speeches and business advice with working in the Middle East and promoting religion.

He said he was relieved not to have got the job as President of Europe. "I love my new life as it is," he told the Sunday Times

The interview comes before Mr Blair's appearance at the Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq war, where he is expected to be bitterly criticised.