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Blair checks into hospital for minor heart operation

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was admitted to hospital yesterday to correct an irregular heartbeat, a day after announcing that he intends to serve a full third term if re-elected.

With his wife Cherie at his side, Blair checked into Hammersmith Hospital in west London for a relatively routine operation to restore his heart rhythm, called a catheter ablation, that will require only local anesthetic.

Asked how he felt as he left Downing Street, his official residence, Blair -- who underwent a different procedure for the same problem in October last year -- waved, smiled and replied: "Fine."

"It's not particularly alarming, but it's something that you should get fixed. It's a routine procedure," he said in a television interview Thursday evening in which he disclosed the operation.

"I've had it for the last couple of months, and it's not impeded me doing my work and feeling fine, but it is as well to get it done."

Blair was due to be discharged from hospital later yesterday, then rest over the weekend before he leaves London later next week for an official visit to Ethiopia.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it [the operation] at all," Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told GMTV television yesterday.

"The cardiologist has assured us it's something that can be done quite quickly and quite effectively," he said. "[Blair] assures everybody, and I fully expect it, that he will get on with his job."

One of Britain's leading cardiologists, Andrew Grace of Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, said the procedure Blair was undergoing yesterday has a high success rate.
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