ON the eve of the most traumatic week of his Premiership, Tony Blair yesterday tried to persuade students in his own North-East constituency that university tuition fees were a good idea.

He talked to the 15 and 16-year olds at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College while Downing Street acknowledged that the Government still has ''a hill to climb'' if it is to win Tuesday's vote.

No 10 confirmed that Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong, the North-West Durham MP, had told Cabinet colleagues on Thursday that Mr Blair was still 20 to 30 votes short of victory.

One North-East backbencher said last night that he had been advised to clear his diary for next week because it was likely that Mr Blair would lose and call an immediate vote of confidence.

That is likely to be held after the Hutton Inquiry Report is published on Wednesday. Tension ahead of the publication was heightened last night when the former head of the Iraq Survey Group said that Saddam had no stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons.

Yesterday, youngsters at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College spent 15 minutes discussing the planned fees with Mr Blair.

One student asked if the new system would punish more successful parents so those on lower incomes could get more help.

Mr Blair said: "The most important thing is to make sure people aren't frightened because their parents don't have enough money.

"If you're going to give people help it should go to the poorest people, but everybody gets some help because they don't have to pay up-front, which is the most difficult thing for parents to find."

Mr Blair said that universities were going to need more money as the number of students multiplied, especially as funding per student had dropped sharply in the last couple of decades.