Iraq overshadows UK Labour Party conference

Iraq and the fate of a British hostage threatened to eclipse efforts by Tony Blair to put domestic policy centre stage yesterday as his Treasury chief called on the Labour Party to unite to secure a third term.

Mr Blair had hoped to use Labour's annual conference to focus on a platform for a general election expected in May but the capture of Briton Kenneth Bigley, being held in Iraq under threat of death, has kept the divisive war top of the agenda.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, widely held to be an impatient prime minister-in-waiting, weighed in on Mr Blair's side yesterday in an apparent bid to silence frantic talk of a feud between the two most powerful men in British politics.

"All of us must do whatever we can to ensure that we build the unity of purpose that this country needs by ensuring the strength of our unity of purpose in this party," Mr Brown told the party's annual convention to thundering applause.

Labour insiders said Mr Brown's performance showed he wanted publicly to bury the hatchet with Mr Blair at a time when the prime minister needs all the support he can get.

Iraq has been the most divisive issue of Mr Blair's seven-year premiership. It has ravaged his public trust ratings, prompting talk of his resignation and feeding the Blair-Brown rivalry speculation.

Mr Blair, who has refused to apologise for backing the US-led war, faces a potentially embarrassing debate on Iraq at conference on Thursday.

"All of us here - and I believe everyone throughout the country - will give, and must give in these difficult times, Tony Blair our full support," Mr Brown told conference in the southern coastal resort town of Brighton.

Pollsters are cautiously confident Labour will win a third term but unrest over Iraq and disillusionment with the government could slash its huge parliamentary majority.

In a poll in The Times newspaper, 64 per cent of voters said Mr Blair had not been a good premier - but the same number preferred him to opposition Conservative Party leader Michael Howard.

The Conservatives are keen to exploit signs of a split between the two most powerful men in British politics but with an election expected in May, Labour wants a united front.

"With victory within our grasp, we can't see it thrown away to the jaws of defeat for any reason," Tony Woodley, head of the Transport and General Workers' Union, told Reuters. "I didn't see any sign of a rift today."