LONDON (Reuters) - Former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook, who resigned from the cabinet last month in protest against the government's stance on Iraq , urged Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday to distance himself from Washington.

Writing in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, Cook described Blair's alliance with President Bush as "a damaging strategic error" which had undermined British foreign policy both in Europe and the developing world.

"For Britain the question of what to do next must start with counting the collateral damage from the war to our international standing," Cook wrote.

"After the divisions over Iraq, Europe is back to a Franco-German axis, with Britain once again the odd one out." Cook, foreign secretary between 1997 and 2001 and Blair's leader in the lower house of parliament until his resignation, described the United States as "a hyper power on the march."

He said Bush had "done his best to block priorities of British diplomacy" on issues as diverse as the Kyoto protocol on global warming , the Johannesburg agenda on world development and the formation of an International Criminal Court.

He said Blair's efforts to bridge the gap between the United States and Europe had left Britain "marooned in mid-Atlantic."
"If the Prime Minister wants to restore Britain's status as a major European player, he must now accept that moving closer to Europe requires, by definition, putting more distance between Britain and Bush," Cook wrote.

Blair, currently in Greece for a meeting of European Union leaders, was heavily criticized by a large section of both the public and his own ruling Labour Party for taking Britain into war in Iraq alongside the United States.

However, recent opinion polls suggest he now has public backing for the action in Iraq, despite the damage caused to Britain's ties with its European partners.

PHOTO CAPTION

Former British Foreign Minister Robin Cook, who resigned from the cabinet last month in protest against the government's stance on Iraq , urged Prime Minister Tony Blair in a newspaper article on April 17, 2003 to distance himself from Washington. Writing in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, Cook described Blair's alliance with President Bush as 'a damaging strategic error' which had undermined British foreign policy both in Europe and the developing world. Cook is shown in London, March 17. (Paul McErlane/Reuters)