The Sketch: Tony turns lounge lizard and makes lurve not war

He may have fathered a child at the ripe old age of 47 and revealed the odd wisp of chest hair on holiday but Tony Blair is not renowned as an ageing Lothario.

Yet after months of relentless conflict against Saddam Hussein, the BBC and public opinion, the Prime Minister decided yesterday on a radical shift in strategy: to make lurve, not war.

Mr Blair appeared to turn Downing Street's state dining room into his own lad-pad when he fixed his gaze on a woman journalist during his monthly press conference.

Katherine Mayer, of the German magazine Focus, had put up her hand and innocently asked: "Do you want me now or not?"

"I want you any time," replied Mr Blair, sounding every inch the Leslie Phillips lounge lizard. "Er ... that's quite something" spluttered a clearly shocked Ms Mayer. Unfortunately, the intimate moment became more Carry On than Casanova when it was disrupted by guffaws from reporters.

"No ... I meant that in a non-whatever-it-is way ..." Mr Blair hastily interjected, clearly afraid of using the word "sexual". But some aides must have hoped it would do wonders for the Prime Minister's flagging reputation.

As a strategy, the attractions are obvious. Mr Blair has often been called a poor man's Bill Clinton, so why not go the whole hog? The Prime Minister could have a new career as a kind of Austin Powers, an international statesman of mystery, an honourable member in every sense of the word, an ageing groovster who fights Dr Evil with his Union Jack underpants ... "Yeah baby!" Earlier, when Mr Blair said that "my appetite for doing it is undiminished", most people assumed that he was talking about being Prime Minister.

Certainly, he began the press conference looking extremely nervous, as if worried that he would be monstered by questions on the David Kelly affair.

But as questions ranging from tax to Europe and the NHS followed, Mr Blair's demeanour relaxed.

In keeping with the "make love not war" approach, he conceded that trust had been undermined by the Iraq controversy. He said there were "lessons" for the Government and the BBC from the Kelly affair and even tried to suggest that no one in Downing Street had wanted Andrew Gilligan's head on a plate. "All we ever wanted was an incorrect story corrected."

The end-of-term atmosphere was confirmed when Mr Blair ended the briefing with a cheery: "I bid you goodbye and a happy holiday." Having arrived looking shifty, he left looking frisky. As Austin Powers might say: "Oh behave!"