Writing in the New Statesman, a political weekly, Cook -- who quit the government over its decision to join the US-led war in Iraq -- said Blair made a "strategic error" by thinking he could "roll forward" to Bush the close relationship he enjoyed with former president Bill Clinton.

"If the prime minister wants to restore Britain's status as a major European player, he must now accept that moving closer to Europe requires, by definition, putting more distance between Britain and Bush," he said.

Cook was Blair's foreign minister during the Kosovo conflict in 1999, and architect of the government's "ethical foreign policy." As leader of the House of Commons he shepherded legislation through parliament.

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