Former prime minister Tony Blair is set to convert to Catholicism within weeks, it was reported last night.

He is likely to be received into the church in a Mass in the private chapel of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, at the end of this month, according to The Tablet, the Catholic weekly.

The report of his conversion emerged on the day that Mr Blair provoked complaints in the Chinese media after he allegedly earned $500,000 (£237,000) for making a three-hour trip to a luxury Chinese housing estate earlier this week.

His spokesman did not deny an imminent conversion.

He said: "No comment, it's the same old speculation."

Over the years speculation about Mr Blair's intentions have waxed and waned. It is understood he told Pope Benedict XVI that he intended to leave the Church of England when he met him in Rome in June.

Cherie, his wife, is a devout Catholic and his four children were baptised as Catholics.

In 1997 the late Cardinal Hume instructed the then prime minister to stop taking Holy Communion, but Mr Blair continued to attend private Masses with Fr Michael Seed, a prominent Westminster priest, in Downing Street.

According to media reports yesterday the Chinese state press questioned whether Mr Blair was worth a bumper $500,000 pay cheque for his whirlwind visit to Dongguan in China's southern province of Guangdong on Tuesday.

Mr Blair made a short speech at the housing complex, built by the Guangda Group, the property development company which sponsored his trip. According to the Guangzhou Daily, the company also offered him one of the houses worth 38 million yuan (£2.4m) but there is no report of Mr Blair accepting the offer.

On Monday, Mr Blair gave a speech in Hong Kong at a lunch hosted by Merril Lynch, the financial services firm which is one of the world's biggest investment banks. Reporters were barred from the hall when Mr Blair appeared at a business forum in China. Instead journalists were allowed to watch the speech via a video link.

Last night Mr Blair's spokesman did not dispute the figures mentioned in the Chinese press. He said: "Mr Blair receives a large number of invitations from a range of organisations. This speech was very well received in the hall."

The China Youth Daily, which is affiliated to the Communist Party's Youth League, reported that the speech was full of pleasantries and cliches but offered no new insight.

"Like reports made by some local officials, there was nothing new in his views so was the speech worth the large sums of money paid out by local officials and businesses?" asked the paper's commentary.

Underpinning the criticism is a general feeling that China was quickly becoming a "gold digging" market for international celebrities.

The paper said: "We should exercise less ostentatiousness and vanity learn more new and genuine knowledge - especially when we are using even a penny of taxpayer's money."

It is not the first time Mr Blair or his wife has courted controversy over receiving payments. When in office he was criticised for receiving free holidays in Italy and the Caribbean.

Mrs Blair was condemned for receiving payment for speaking engagements.