Reporting Religion

The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has unveiled his Faith Foundation in New York.

In this special edition of Reporting Religion, Dan Damon talks exclusively to Tony Blair about his mission to promote respect, friendship and understanding between the major religious faiths.

The organisation which is named the 'Tony Blair Faith Foundation' will attempt to bring religions together to tackle global issues such as the UN's eight Millennium Development Goals.

Those goals cover issues which range from eradicating extreme poverty to ensuring environmental sustainability and one of Blair's first priorities will be to fight the spread of malaria.

The three key aims for the foundation are:

• To promote respect and understanding between the major religions

• To make the case for faith as a force for good

• To encourage inter-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty and conflict

On the launch of the foundation, Tony Blair who is now a peace envoy to the Middle East said:

"Religious faith will be of the same significance to the 21st Century as political ideology was to the 20th Century.

"In an era of globalisation, there is nothing more important than getting people of different faiths and cultures to understand each other better and live in peace and mutual respect; and to give faith itself its proper place in the future."

Dan Damon also talks to the former Prime Minister about his recent conversion to Catholicism and how religion influenced his time in power.