Prime Minister Tony Blair has praised the pioneering links between a Keighley school and one in Indonesia and revealed he wanted 1,000 like it.

He was visiting the Pondok Pesantren Darunnajah, an Islamic boarding school which is twinned with the Holy Family School.

Mr Blair said Britain hoped to forge 1,000 such links between schools in Indonesia and the UK.

Paul Quinn, Holy Family School's international co-ordinator, said the twinning project, which had just been established, was based on sharing information about technology and creative arts.

He said the link was not just about swapping e-mails but a true exchange of ideas and information.

"The Indonesians want to learn from us how it is possible to embed those subjects into the curriculum," said Mr Quinn.

Mr Blair was given an enthusiastic welcome by pupils at the Indonesian school as he witnessed displays of martial arts and dancing and heard the girls school band serenade him with John Lennon's Imagine.

But during a question and answer session with students he came face-to-face with their concerns over their "brothers and sisters" in Iraq and Palestine.

He told them: "I want to say, as someone from the Christian faith, that I believe that people of different faiths can live together in harmony and peace."