ANTI-WAR campaigners attacked comments by Tony Blair that God would be the ultimate judge of the Iraq war as a joke.

The Prime Minister said in an interview with chat show host Michael Parkinson that he made policy decisions according to his conscience, which is guided by his Christian faith.

When asked about sending troops to Iraq, he said: "That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with, and in the end there is a judgement that - well, I think if you have faith about these things, then you realise that judgement is made by other people."

Asked to explain what he meant Mr Blair replied: "If you believe in God it's made by God as well."

Rose Gentle, whose son, Gordon, was killed in Basra in 2004, a Military Families Against the War campaigner, said: "How can he say he is a Christian? A Christian would never put people out there to be killed. A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm quite disgusted. It's a joke."

Reg Keys, father of L-Cpl Tom Keys, a Military Policeman who was one of six Red Caps killed by a mob in Iraq in June, 2003, said Mr Blair's words were "abhorrent".

He added: "President Bush made comments like this, about how God told him to go to war . . . This is nothing to do with God. He is using God as a get-out for total strategic failure and I find it abhorrent."

In the interview - on YTV at 9.55pm tonight - Parkinson asked Mr Blair if he prayed to God when he decided to go to war in Iraq.

Mr Blair replied: "Well, I don't want to get into something like that."

Pressed further, he said: "Of course you struggle with your own conscience about it, because people's lives are affected and it's one of these situations that I suppose very few people ever find themselves in. In the end you do what you think is the right thing."

Lib-Dem MP Evan Harris, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, said: "Our political system relies on decisions being made by accountable and elected politicians, not by their, or anyone else's, gods."

"It is a bizarre and shocking revelation that the Prime Minister claims to have been guided by the supernatural in this matter, especially given the religious sensitivities in the Middle East."

"We don't want Bush or Khomeini- type fundamentalism in our politics."

Lib-Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: "Going to war isn't just an act of faith. It requires rigorous analysis of the legality of doing so, the likelihood of success, the number of possible casualties and long-term consequences."