Students are set to pay up to �3,000 in fees

Mr Blair told senior MPs on the Commons liaison committee the public could have been given more information about universities' funding problems.

But, he stressed, he had published fees plans a year before MPs debated them.

"You can put out an awful lot of information but until the bill comes before the House people do not really, really focus on it," he said.

'Policy, not process'

Questioned during his six-monthly appearance before the committee, made up of the backbench MPs who chair the various Commons committees, Mr Blair said the issue could have been handled differently within the Labour Party.

"But a government cannot do much more than have a White Paper a year before reform," he said.

After his Commons majority was reduced to just five in last week's fees vote, he urged people to concentrate on the real policy debates, not the process.

"I do not think myself the reason why we came close on foundation hospitals and tuition fees was ultimately about the process," he said.

Instead, the heart of the policy worry had been MPs' fears about the "marketisation" of public services, he said.

Legal shake-up

Mr Blair also admitted he could have handled better the announcement that the historic post of lord chancellor was to be abolished.

The move led to accusations of a "botched" cabinet reshuffle last summer.

The prime minister said it would have been better to have made clear that the government was consulting on the idea before the change came about.

The part of the questions session devoted to domestic issues saw Conservative MP Peter Ainsworth argue the government's decision to allow "massive" increases in flight journeys was at odds with promises on tackling climate change.

Mr Blair agreed with his chief scientific adviser that global warming was the most important long-term challenge facing the world.

And it was true the two issues of meeting aviation demand and reducing pollution were potentially in conflict.

But he said Britain wanted an investigation into the scientific and technological issues over cutting the environmental damage of aviation when it chaired the G8 summits of the world's most industrialised countries next year.