  It is shown that the next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections to the QCD
Pomeron intercept obtained from the BFKL equation, when evaluated in
non-Abelian physical renormalization schemes with BLM optimal scale setting do
not exhibit the serious problems encountered in the
$\overline{\mbox{MS}}$-scheme. A striking feature of the NLO BFKL Pomeron
intercept in the BLM approach is its rather weak dependence on the virtuality
of the reggeized gluon. This remarkable property yields an important
approximate conformal invariance. The results obtained provide an opportunity
for applications of NLO BFKL resummation to high-energy phenomenology.
