Tony Blair has said he is "100% confident" his government can deliver a serious of tough pledges on the NHS as he defended the Budget tax rise.

I am 100% confident that we can win this debate because I am 100% confident that it is the right thing to do Tony Blair

The prime minister vowed that there would be significant improvements in the NHS by the time of the next election.

He said: "If it doesn't work I am sure that people will judge me harshly on it but I intend it to work.

"Yes, I carry the can and I am happy to be judged on it. But I am 100% confident that we can win this debate because I am 100% confident that it is the right thing to do."

Low tax burden

Mr Blair conducted a round of interviews on Friday afternoon in an attempt to rally support for the Budget measures.

National Insurance (NI) contributions are to rise by 1% to help fund a �40bn increase in NHS funding over five years.

The Liberal Democrats support the NI rise - but the Conservatives say spending alone will not solve the problems of the health service and accuse ministers of ignoring real options for change.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith says the NI increase is a "tax on jobs".

But Mr Blair said the UK tax burden remained low compared to many other countries.

But he said there was "no free way" of paying for improvements in the National Health Service.

And the prime minister argued that social insurance schemes or private medical insurance would prove more costly than funding the NHS out of general taxation.

He said: "There is no free way of getting those additional resources."

Warning

Mr Blair told the BBC waiting times would be down to six months by 2005 and that all patients would receive booked appointments.

He said NHS patients would be able to choose to have treatment in another area if waiting lists were too long.

And he said the problem of "bed blocking" - where patients remain in hospital because there is no adequate care for them outside - would be solved by giving local authorities more money on the understanding that facilities are provided.

The prime minister denied that the government had broken election pledges on tax, saying Labour had been "specific" about its commitments.

He said: "I think we have been very straightforward with people. We said to people that if we want a better healthcare system we are going to have to pay for it."

'Destruction'

Earlier, the government was warned that the Budget tax changes threaten to drive foreign banks out of Britain.

Digby Jones warns of a "tax on jobs"

Angus MacLennan, chairman of the Foreign Banks and Securities Houses Association, said the move could see the "destruction of the best industry in the UK".

Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt rejected the attack, saying UK companies wanted the extra healthcare investment because sickness was costing them huge amounts each year.

Mr MacLennan's warning to the chancellor came in a letter to the Financial Times.

Chancellor Gordon Brown and Mr Blair should realise urgently that "they have drawn rather close to the line where foreign banks will choose a location other than London", he says.

'Uneconomic'

Business will go abroad, predicts Mr MacLennan, first through assets being moved and then income going abroad.

Those developments will increase the costs of being in London and make locating in the City uneconomic, he argues.

Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI, also criticised the tax changes included in Wednesday's Budget.

"Business will be dismayed across the United Kingdom because this rise in National Insurance contributions is a tax on jobs," Mr Jones told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

But Ms Hewitt insisted the 1p increase in NI was a "fair way to get this enormous increase in the NHS".