"The prime minister is back and is in Downing Street. He got back this morning. He has got meetings in Downing Street but no public engagements today," a spokesman said.

Later this week Blair goes to Scotland for a courtesy visit with Queen Elizabeth II before setting off for EU-China and EU-India summits in Beijing and New Delhi, followed a week later by the UN World Summit in New York.

Britain currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Blair's holiday whereabouts were kept secret by the British news media at the behest of his senior advisers, ostensibly for security reasons in the wake of the London bombings last month.

But he broke the silence himself when he publicly attended a World War II memorial event on August 21 at the invitation of the Barbados Legion, a local veterans group.

Blair's agenda in the coming weeks will be dominated by his response to the July 7 attacks on three London subway trains and a double-decker bus that left 56 people dead, including four apparent Islamist suicide bombers.

He will also be preoccupied with EU matters, including a row with France over EU farm subsidies and the future direction of the 25-nation bloc after the defeat of the EU constitution in French and Dutch referendums.