Tony Blair our very special adviser by dictator Gaddafi's son

Tony Blair has become an adviser to Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator's son has sensationally claimed.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said the former prime minister has secured a consultancy role with a state fund that manages the country's £65billion of oil wealth.

In an exclusive interview, Saif described Mr Blair as a 'personal family friend' of the Libyan leader and said he had visited the country 'many, many times' since leaving Downing Street three years ago.

Personal friends? Tony Blair meets Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base

If true, the claims will plunge Mr Blair - now a Middle East peace envoy - into a fresh row over potential conflicts of interest between his public and private roles.

His business affairs have attracted widespread controversy because they are deliberately shrouded in secrecy.

Last night, families of the 270 Lockerbie victims accused Mr Blair of breaking bread with people who 'have blood on their hands'.

They have in the past raised questions about Mr Blair's relationship with Colonel Gaddafi especially over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya that paved the way for the return of the Lockerbie bomber last year.

Saif made clear that the agreement - drawn up when Mr Blair was prime minister - was key to creating a 'special relationship' between Britain and Libya.

Saif suggested Mr Blair was involved in 'Africa projects' with his father, alleging: 'He also has some consultancy role with the Libyan Investment Authority.'

Mr Blair was adamant last night he had no relationship whatsoever with the LIA. However he is advising several firms seeking a slice of the massive revenues from Libya's oil reserves.

Saif, speaking in his private suite in Mayfair's five star Connaught Hotel, said: 'Tony Blair has an excellent relationship with my father.

'For us, he is a personal family friend. I first met him around four years ago at Number 10. Since then I've met him several times in Libya where he stays with my father. He has come to Libya many, many times.



'He's adviser to the LIA, the Libyan Investment Authority. He has some consultancy role.' Saif defended Mr Blair's right to exploit his contacts in Libya.

'Many people are unhappy with him [Blair] because of Iraq,' he said. 'It's much easier to deal with the LIA than the Middle East. Tony Blair has the right to earn money.

'It's a good thing to be a businessman. The LIA is ready to talk to anybody who wants to do business in Libya.'

Last night, Mr Blair's spokesman said: 'Tony Blair does not have any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the government of Lybia.

'He has an excellent relationship with my father '

'He has no commercial relationship with any Libyan companies or any Libyan projects in Africa.'

But sources close to the Gaddafi family said Saif - tipped to succeed his father as leader of his country - stands by his comments.

Colonel Gaddafi is understood to be on first name terms with Mr Blair, who saw his work in Libya as one of the great foreign policy successes of his premiership.

Mr Blair has always insisted he played no role in the return of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, who was sent home last August by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds after doctors wrongly said he had only three months to live.

But Saif said Megrahi's release was 'always on the negotiating table' in discussions about ' commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain'.

Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, told the Mail: 'If this is true, I guess this is Tony Blair's reward from the Libyan government for what he has done.

'It's important for world peace that Libya is brought back into the community of nations but that doesn't mean that you have to honour people with blood on their hands.'

Saif, 37, was a key player in Libya's bid to end its pariah status and renounce nuclear weapons.









That decision led to Mr Blair's trip to Tripoli in 2004, where he shook Colonel Gaddafi's hand and declared a 'new relationship'. The meeting led to lucrative Libyan oil contracts for Shell.

A month before stepping down as PM, Mr Blair visited-Colonel Gaddafi in Tripoli again at the same time that BP signed a $900million deal with the Libyan National Oil Company.

Saif said: 'Libya has a special relationship with Britain.'

Since becoming a part-time Middle East peace envoy on leaving office in 2007, Mr Blair has exploited his contacts to amass a personal fortune in excess of £20million.

He has a lucrative contract to advise JP Morgan, which pays him £2million a year. Part of his job for them is to develop banking opportunities in Libya. It is understood that British firms Mr Blair is linked to are also being given contracts to tap Libya's massive natural resources, and to help rebuild the country's outdated infrastructure.

The details are sketchy because he has built a labyrinthine business empire of interlocking partnerships designed, it seems, to conceal the sources and scale of his income.

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, who chairs the all-party Commons committee on Libya, said Mr Blair should spend more time on his role as a Middle East envoy than allegedly exploiting his links with the Gaddafi family.

He said: 'Mr Blair has a very important job. It does concern me greatly that he seems to spend so much time with the Libyans, who are not key players in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

'There should be greater transparency to ensure that Tony Blair is not using his current position and his previous position to assist his business interests.'

Sources close to Mr Blair said it was a matter of public record that he has visited Libya since leaving office, where he has discussed a range of issues.

They said he fully supported the decision to integrate Libya back into the international community and is proud of the role he played in the process.



The social web that connects the rich and powerful

Saif Gaddafi sits at the centre of a remarkable social web that has ensnared both Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson.

The men are bound together by their interests in Libyan business and their friendship with the multi-billionaire financiers of the Rothschild family.

Lord Mandelson once remarked that he was 'intensely relaxed' about extreme wealth, a position he has justified ever since. It was only natural that he should share an interest in networking and wealth with one of the world's oldest banking families.

But even the Rothschilds have probably never described him as a 'killer of a man'.

That was Saif Gaddafi's take on the former Business Secretary. After Labour's election defeat, Mr Gaddafi said: 'It's bad news for the UK that he left because he is a killer of a man. It's a loss for the UK.'

The two men met briefly last summer at the secluded cliff top mansion compound of the Rothschild family on the holiday island of Corfu.

Curiously, their stays overlapped by one night and came only a week before the announcement-that the perpetrator of the Lockerbie bombing could be released from prison.

They 'fleetingly' discussed the fate of the bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi but Lord Mandelson's spokesman said he was ' completely unsighted' on the impending release.

Last November, Lord Mandelson spent more time in the company of Saif during a shooting weekend at Waddesdon Manor, Lord Rothschild's mini-Versailles in Buckinghamshire. Cherie Blair was also a guest.

Earlier this month, the former business secretary was seen zipping around the Swiss ski resort of Klosters in Nat Rothschild's £250,000 Ferrari convertible.

An Anglophile, Col Gaddafi's likely heir Saif studied for a PhD at the London School of Economics. He has a £10million London home.