TONY Blair has praised the Echo's campaign for free bus passes for pensioners.

The Prime Minister, speaking in Westminster to an audience of regional newspaper editors, picked out the paper's push to safeguard free county-wide bus travel as "a very fine example of everything that is best about local media".

The campaign touched people directly "to a far greater degree than some of the things that reverberate round the House of Commons chambers", Mr Blair said.

He added: "The local and regional papers do a fantastic job both reflecting views of local people but also leading local campaigns, often outstanding in what they do, sometimes very uncomfortable for government but nonetheless brilliant."

The Daily Echo has launched a petition urging the government not to let a challenge from bus operators end the countywide concessionary scheme.

Completed copies have continued to flood in from dismayed pensioners desperate not to lose the privilege of travel across Hampshire, which many say is essential to their quality of life.

The campaign was launched after operators asked for more money to run the scheme, claiming they did not receive enough to reflect the number of trips being made by pass holders.

The Department of Transport is currently considering an appeal by bus operators in Hampshire and is expected to make a ruling by the end of the year.

Mr Blair, who made his comments during the annual lunch of the Newspaper Conference, the trade association for the regional press, also pledged further laws to tackle anti-social behaviour, including powers to quickly close premises used for drug dealing.

He vowed to complete "controversial and difficult" reforms of the NHS and schools.

Looking back at his nine years as Prime Minister, Mr Blair, who has announced he will step down from the top job by next September, said: "Some of the things we have done will reverberate over years to come in quite important ways.

"Changes in the secondary school system, with trust schools and academy schools, will change the face of secondary education in this country."

Other lasting achievements, Mr Blair said, included health reforms, anti-social behaviour laws, progress with the Northern Ireland peace process, moves to tackle global poverty and climate change, and the introduction of independence of the Bank of England and the minimum wage.

The Prime Minister said the UK was now "far more modern" than it was when Labour came to power in 1997.

He said: "When we won the right to host the Olympic games we won it in part because the picture of Britain painted was less old fashioned and more modern."

But asked to name his greatest mistakes of his premiership, Mr Blair said: "That's for me to know and you to find out."