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'Blair unaware of Mittal's donation to Labour Party'

British Premier Tony Blair was not aware of the £125,000 political donation made to the Labour party by Lakshmi Mittal when he (Blair) intervened to support the Indian steel magnate's takeover of Romanian company -- Sidex -- according to an official.

"The prime minister had not known about Mittal's political donation when signing the letter. Nor had the British ambassador to Romania or the Foreign Office when they had made their initial recommendation," an official of the Prime Minister's Office said in reply to a volley of questions on the Mittal issue.

Mittal was reported to have donated £125,000 to the Labour party headquarters, in London, one month before the general elections last year.

"Blair spent 30 seconds signing the letter to Adrian Nastase, the Romanian Premier, which was sent on the direct advice of the British ambassador in Bucharest," the official added.

"If there were valid reasons for signing a letter of support because of recommendations from the Ambassador, those reasons remained valid whether the companies had made a political donation or not," said the official noting that the £300 million takeover deal secured by Mittal was in the wider British interest.

Meanwhile, Mittal in an interview to a British newspaper claimed that he had won the contract to buy the Romanian steel plant before Blair lobbied on his behalf by sending the letter.

"We qualified for the tender in 2000," he said.

The Romanian Ambassador to Britain Dan Ghibernnea said Blair was "in the clear" over his "formal and neutral" letter.

He told BBC Radio Monday night the deal had been finalized "long before" the letter arrived.

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