Tony Blair told Jeffrey Epstein he consulted a 'wise religious man' for personal advice during a meeting at Downing Street, the Epstein files suggest.

The paedophile financier said in an email that the former prime minister had discussed the 'nature that religion plays in world conflicts' during the 2002 meeting.

It is the first account of the meeting - brokered by disgraced former US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson - to have been made public since its existence was confirmed in October.

Epstein's account of his meeting with Sir Tony is contained in a note he emailed to himself in December 2018, just months before his arrest.

The email, seen by the Mail, is contained in a trove of more than three million documents released by the US Department of Justice.

Epstein wrote: 'I met Tony at number 10. He told me then that his future goal was to understand the nature that religion plays in world conflicts.

'He told me that he had a wise religioius [sic] man in Austrailia [sic] that he would consult when he needed personal advice. btw I am very happy to be called your friend.'

The 'religious man' appears to refer to Peter Thomson, an Australian Anglican priest Sir Tony met while studying at Oxford University. The former PM has described him as a 'spellbinding' figure who awakened his interest in religion.

It is not clear what the line about being 'called your friend' refers to, and whether Epstein had been intending to send the email to somebody else. A source said that Sir Tony did not say anything of the sort to Epstein.

Lord Mandelson had pushed for Sir Tony to meet his 'young and vibrant' friend Epstein before the meeting between the paedophile financier and then-prime minister took place, files released to Parliament this week show.

In an email to Jonathan Powell, then Sir Tony's chief of staff, Lord Mandelson said: 'I think TB would be interested in meeting Jeffrey, who is also a friend of mine.'

The ex-Labour minister added: 'He is young and vibrant. He is safe (whatever that means) and [Bill] Clinton is now doing a lot of travelling with him.'

The documents go on to confirm the meeting between Sir Tony and Epstein in May 2002.

Matthew Rycroft, then a Downing Street foreign policy aide, wrote to the then-PM: 'Jeffrey Epstein is seeing you at 5pm today. He is a financial adviser to the super-rich and a property developer. He is a friend of Bill Clinton and Peter Mandelson.'

The note adds that Epstein was 'very rich' and 'close to the Duke of York', Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

When Epstein sent the memo about Sir Tony, he was in bed with flu and staying in Florida. In other emails sent on the same day, Epstein complained about his cold and told friends he was 'sick in bed'.

The Downing Street meeting with Sir Tony was six years before Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008. Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, eight months after the date of the email.

A spokesman for Sir Tony said: 'As far as he can remember, Mr Blair met with him for less than 30 minutes in Downing Street in May 2002 and discussed US and UK politics.

'He never met or engaged with him subsequently. This was, of course, long before his crimes were known of and his subsequent conviction.'