The blaze destroyed half of the �100m asylum centre

He told MPs the government took responsibility for failures which led to riots and a fire at the Yarl's Wood centre near Bedford in February 2002.

A new report from prisons ombudsman Stephen Shaw said the centre was rushed into operation to meet targets.

Mr Blair said the government would comply with the report's findings.

Mr Shaw made 79 recommendations this week to Home Secretary David Blunkett, including a staffing review and achievable targets in future.

'We take responsibility'

Local MP, Alistair Burt (C Bedfordshire NE), told the Commons on Wednesday that the 1,000-bed building was unfit for its purpose, echoing Mr Shaw's criticism of its construction as rushed and "astonishingly flimsy".

Mr Burt asked: "Who do you think is accountable and responsible for the policy failures which led to the incident which the ombudsman himself said was `a hair's breadth from tragedy'?"

"Of course we take responsibility for Yarl's Wood," Mr Blair responded at question time.

"We have taken on board the criticisms that were made in respect of Yarl's Wood and we are making sure, both in respect of the refurbishment and in respect of other detention space, that we come into compliance with the recommendations of that report."

Faster processing

But the prime minister said that extra detention space was needed to help deal with demand for asylum cases to be dealt with more swiftly.

"I would point out that it is necessary to make sure we have more detention space and we are increasing that for the very obvious reason that there is concern about asylum claims in particular.

"We are now processing those claims, 80% of them, in two months.

"Despite yesterday's rise, the number of asylum applications is now down round about to the level we inherited in 1997," Mr Blair said.