Transatlantic jealousy over US superiority threatens to "pull Europe and America apart", the prime minister has warned.

Casting himself in the role of peacemaker between the two power blocs, Tony Blair cautions that the only beneficiaries of rifts between Europe and the US are "the bad guys".

"I regard it as one of my tasks to say to people don't pull apart Europe and America," he told the Times.

"The only people who rejoice in these circumstances are the bad guys and America and Europe should stand together on most issues."

A looming trade battle over punitive US tariffs on steel imports, European anger over America's stance on global warming and EU concern over the perceived unilateralism of George W Bush have chilled the transatlantic political climate.

Blair believes that "the reality is the closeness and the exaggeration of the distance" between Europe and America.

"There will always be people on both sides of the Atlantic who want to pull Europe and America apart," he told the newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

"There are some in America who simply dismiss Europe as not serious and some in Europe whose voices border on being anti-American.

"My sense of this is that despite the difficulties the sensible majority understand that what we have in common is far more important than what divides us."

The British PM argues that much hostility is caused by "jealousy about America's position, worry about American culture dominating European culture and also because America is the world's superpower and anyone who is pre-eminent always takes a bit of flak".

But transatlantic suspicion, Blair says, can be a two way street. "Perhaps I'm being franker than I should be. I think that there is a certain ambivalence on both sides of the Atlantic ," he said.

"The Europeans want America to take the lead but sometimes, if it does, will criticise it for being unilateralist.

"The Americans want Europe to take more responsibility, but then when we do it can sometimes look as if we're trying to muscle in or be unhelpful."