Tony Blair has been lumped in with the likes of Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro - and all because he doesn't have an email address.

In a personal attack the Conservative Party "named and shamed" the PM today as the only major world leader without a public email address.

Tim Yeo, the Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, rounded on the PM, insisting that Mr Blair is failing to live up to his rhetoric on e-government.

In a letter Mr Yeo said: "I am sure that the representatives from business, the public services, the government and e-envoys from abroad whom you lectured about the use of information technology at the e-summit last November would have been surprised to learn that you are the only head of government of a G8 country not to have an email address."

He pointed out that Mr Blair shared the same company as "the leaders of Cuba, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea and Zimbabwe" in being "one of the few heads of any government who cannot be contacted in this way".

In a stunt designed to spare the blushes of Mr Blair, the Tories have thoughtfully set up a Hotmail account - RtHonTonyBlairMP@hotmail.com - for the PM

A Downing Street spokesman confirmed Mr Blair had no public email address claiming that such a thing "would be impractical" - before adding that plans are in the pipeline. ®