LOTS of eye contact, crooked grins and plenty of unashamedly flashy smiles.

There is no doubt our Prime Minister is a fabulous flirt, and much of his campaigning was done yesterday before a female audience. And they loved it.

Mr Tony Blair could have been reciting the alphabet backwards and it might not have mattered, he had entranced a room full of women at the Ulster Hospital in Belfast.

As he wound up a five-minute, off-the-cuff address, his audience were literally leaning forward to get closer to him, all smiling, some even hugging themselves, for goodness sake.

Leaving the meeting, Mr Blair extracted another dose of goodwill, suggesting: ''Oh come on, let's all have our picture taken - we'll want something to remember this by.''

Grinning widely like his boss, an aide said in a rather loud aside: ''I think that's what we in the trade call a moist moment.''

He had a point, the Prime Minister is not just a statesman, he is apparently also a bit of a ladies man.

Of course, he can be a man's man, too, as he proved when he popped in to the 19th at Knock Golf Club, in east Belfast, on Wednesday evening.

His arrival in Northern Ireland boosted what had been a lacklustre Yes campaign and underlined the dour negativity of those urging people to vote No.

Adverts in the province's newspapers by United Unionists were gloomy, black and white productions on a doomsday scenario after a Yes vote. In contrast, those featuring David Trimble were colourful affairs urging ''Vote Yes for the Future''.

A large percentage of voters are apparently still undecided, it is probably a safe bet to say, however, that the 40 women who met Mr Blair yesterday are not among them.