Former Labour leader Michael Foot has challenged Tony Blair over his close links to the Bush administration.

The veteran left-wing campaigner described the international policy being pursued by the US as "very offensive to us in the Labour Party".

"I think our government has not understood what real liberal America is thinking," he told the Guardian.

Foot, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, claimed the prime minister and the president have made the world "a much more dangerous place".

The man who led Labour from 1980 to 1983 rejected the policy behind the invasion of Iraq. He said the right to take pre-emptive strikes was "a recipe for international anarchy".

"There is nothing in any of the charters of the United Nations that we have built up and subscribed to in the past that gives any right to a pre-emptive strike - and once you look at it, the dangers become even more infinite," he said.He highlighted the nuclear risk posed by Pakistan and India.

"They've got a damn sight better case against each other than Bush ever had against Iraq," he said.

He singled out former Commons leader Robin Cook as one of the few politicians who "does understand the international questions of how you get full-scale action to deal with these weapons".

Cook has been described as a rallying point for the left.

Foot called on the prime minister to bring the Livingston MP back into the Cabinet.

"I'd very much like to see him back in the government. Sometimes, the Labour Party can behave very badly," he said.