TONY BLAIR told world leaders yesterday that he believed far-reaching international deals on Africa, trade and climate change could be sealed within months.

Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blair said that although he would be leaving office soon he was determined to play a leading part in the next few months.

“Take these issues — Africa, climate change, world trade — and imagine over the coming months the world agrees and over the coming years, it acts,” he said. “Think how attractive our story of the world’s progress would be. Then think of failure and who will weep and who will rejoice.”

Blair’s speech came as ministers from nearly 30 countries, including Britain, agreed to revive stalled global trade talks in a last-ditch effort to give African countries fair access to western markets.

The talks, known as the Doha round, were launched more than five years ago but appeared to be on the brink of failure when they were suspended last July. Both Blair and Gordon Brown warned last week that if the talks were not kick-started, rich countries would be letting down Africa and the rest of the developing world and would risk a return to protectionism.

In yesterday’s speech, which earned a standing ovation from delegates, Blair hailed what could be a breakthrough in the trade talks.

Also in his speech, Blair held out the hope of an agreement on climate change to replace the Kyoto accord when it expires in 2012.

He said that a “quantum shift” in the attitude of America, combined with the determination of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to focus on the issue during her presidency of the European Union and the G8, offered significant new hope.

Blair, who was given star billing in his final Davos meeting as prime minister, said: “I believe we are potentially on the verge of a breakthrough.”

He added: “The mood in the US is in the process of a quantum shift . . . It is a prize of tantalising significance and I think it is possible.”

Despite the optimistic note, however, Blair also reflected that during his 10 years in power he had found the world “woefully short” of ways to put agreements into action.

“What we lack is capacity, capability, the concerted means to act,” he said.

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