By Peter Graff

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has given Britain's special relationship with America a "Disneyesque hue", and it now needs a dose of reality, opposition Conservative defence spokesman Liam Fox said in an interview.

The remarks, from one of the top figures in the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, show the degree to which President George W. Bush's administration is getting a newly sceptical hearing from its natural allies abroad.

"When Churchill coined the phrase 'special relationship' it was really to do with military and intelligence matters. It's only in recent years that it's taken on this Disneyesque hue -- the special relationship," Fox told Reuters.

"I think a sharp dose of reality is a good thing. And if we're going to be America's best friend, which we should be, that means we also needn't be afraid when we have a difference of opinion."

The centre-right Conservatives, long backers of close ties with the United States, and Republicans in particular, voted to support the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But with Iraq seen as going badly, Conservatives under new leader David Cameron have gingerly begun expressing scepticism about their allies across the Atlantic.

Blair will step down over the next few weeks, most likely in favour of his finance minister, Gordon Brown. Cameron is ahead in polls to succeed Brown at the next election, which must be held by 2010.

Fox blamed former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for mistakes in Iraq and suggested that Blair should have been more aggressive in trying to persuade Washington to change course.

"Those of us who supported the war, those of us who believe that there was justification in the wider picture for it, have been very frustrated by what we see as a lack of planning and a lack of thought that was given to the post-conflict period, which I think has made many things worse," Fox said.

"I think the errors in Iraq were all basically political errors. The lack of a sufficiently large deployment for the post-conflict period. The disbanding of the Iraqi army which took apart one of the very few functioning institutions of the state," Fox told Reuters.

He added: "A substantial proportion of that probably lies at the door of Donald Rumsfeld."

"In the Thatcher-Reagan era, there was hardly a time in our history when there was a closer working relationship between prime minister and president. Yet Margaret Thatcher would never have hesitated to pick up the phone and give Reagan a good piece of her mind if the situation warranted," Fox said.

"And no one at that time said that because Margaret Thatcher and President Reagan had a difference of opinion, the special relationship had fallen apart."

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