Cherie: I'd be mad if I worried about my image

Cherie Blair today declared that she would be "a basket case" if she worried too much about the media attention that comes with being the Prime Minister's wife.

In an interview to mark her 50th birthday, Mrs Blair told the Daily Telegraph that she worried about turning 60 - and gave a lukewarm assessment of her relations with US President George Bush.

She denied her decision to hold a birthday party tomorrow at Chequers was insensitive because it coincided with the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.

Mrs Blair also rejected suggestions from former BBC director-general Greg Dyke that she had shunned him for his criticism of her husband over the Hutton Inquiry.

Next week she will end her practice of avoiding public comment on her life at No10 when she publishes a new book, The Goldfish Bowl.

Mrs Blair said: "If I spent my life worrying about the fact the camera was on me, I would be a basket case by now."