UK's Blair to tell successor to broaden appeal

MANCHESTER, England, Sep 26 (Reuters) British Prime Minister Tony Blair will urge his ruling Labour Party today to focus on winning re-election, hoping to end a succession row that has overshadowed its annual conference.

In his last speech to the conference as prime minister, Blair will tell members they must deepen reforms he has championed during nearly a decade in office to win a fourth straight election, expected in 2009.

Blair wanted the rally to draw a line under infighting over the succession but a reported slur by his wife against heir apparent finance minister Gordon Brown broke a fragile truce.

''The core vote of this party is not the heartlands, the inner city or any sectional interest or lobby. Our core vote is the country,'' Blair will say in his final speech to the rally in northern England, according to extracts released by aides.

Blair was forced to say this month he would resign within a year to stem a party revolt, ceding ground in a succession battle with Brown that has scarred their relationship.

The leadership struggle stole the spotlight on Tuesday as the media seized on a report by news agency Bloomberg that Cherie Blair accused Brown of lying when he told the conference on Monday that it had been a privilege to work for Blair.

She has denied making the remark.

FISSURE Senior party figures, with more candour than ever before, spoke of the damaging Blair-Brown split.

Peter Mandelson, a close confidant of Blair and European trade commissioner, said a real effort was under way to repair a fissure between the Blair and Brown camps that he said dated back to Blair winning the party leadership in 1994.

''Gordon (Brown) thought he could and should have been leader in 1994 and he has never fully reconciled himself to not doing so,'' he told BBC radio.

Mandelson called Brown ''a winner'' but he held back from endorsing him as the sole candidate: ''I want the next leader to be as successful as the last and were it to be Gordon Brown I think he would be.'' Some Blair loyalists and other Labour members, fearing Brown lacks the charisma to win elections, want an alternative. Allies of the finance minister told Reuters that Blair's camp wants a heavyweight figure to challenge Brown and hopefully win.

Potential candidates have yet to say they will run.

Blair ally Work and Pensions Minister John Hutton, asked if he would run for the top job, told the BBC: ''I'm not answering that question yet.'' Blair's popularity has dwindled over his support for the US-led war on Iraq, his policies in West Asia and his pro-market reforms.

Polls show that Britons may be ready for a change of government.

The opposition Conservatives, resurgent under youthful leader David Cameron, are leading Labour in polls.

REUTERS AB RK1905