Tony Blair chosen as recipient of Lincoln Leadership Prize

CHICAGO (AP) - Former British prime minister Tony Blair is the recipient of this year's Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation's Lincoln Leadership Prize.

Blair will be award the prize April 24 in Chicago. The foundation says the honor is given to those who have strength of character, individual conscience and commitment to democracy.

Blair served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007. Since leaving office he has spent time working in the Mideast and Africa and with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. He is the first British citizen to receive the Lincoln Leadership Prize. Other recipients have included former U.S. president Bill Clinton, astronaut James Lovell Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Ray McCaskey is chair of the foundation's board of directors. He says Blair "embodies the kind of leadership that President Lincoln would have recognized and appreciated."