Former prime minister Tony Blair has said his religious beliefs did not play a role in his decision to support the US invasion of Iraq.
Speaking during a debate with writer Christopher Hitchens in Toronto, Canada, about the merits of religion, Mr Blair, a Catholic convert, said all his policy decisions, including supporting the Iraq war, were based on his genuine belief they were the right choices.
Mr Hitchens, an avowed atheist, Vanity Fair columnist and author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, argued that religion forced people to do unspeakable things under the guise of faith.
He is fighting final-stage oesophageal cancer and has refused to embrace religion despite his diagnosis.
