The British prime minister today pledged to keep a commitment to follow recommendations of a report into four controversial killings in Northern Ireland.
But he told MPs in the House of Commons there were "particular legal reasons" behind his government's refusal so far to publish it.
Yesterday, the family of murdered Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane launched a new court action against the British government in a bid to force it to set up a public inquiry immediately.
The move came after the High Court in Belfast agreed to a British government application for a three-week adjournment of an action by the family seeking to compel Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Paul Murphy to publish the report into the killing and three others that he has been sitting on for more than four months.
The report, commissioned from retired Canadian Supreme Court judge Peter Cory after a round of political talks at Weston Park in 2001, examined allegations of security force collusion in the murders.
Former British Labour Party spokesman on the North, Mr Kevin McNamara, said the judge had privately told the families involved that he had come down in favour of a public inquiry.
"Can you therefore give an undertaking that after the report has been published, public inquiries will be established as recommended and that there will be no attempt to subsume or absorb those inquiries into any future truth and reconciliation commission so that those responsible for those hideous crimes can properly be held to account?"
Mr Blair said: "I stand by the commitments of Weston Park but there are particular legal reasons which we have to go through and make sure are in order before we are able to publish the Cory report. We will do so as soon as we can."
No decisions had been taken on any possible truth and reconciliation commission, he said.