Britain's Brown promises to renew, listen and learn

MANCHESTER, England, June 24 (Reuters) Britain's incoming prime minister, Gordon Brown, vowed today to renew the government and learn lessons from the war in Iraq as he took the helm of the ruling Labour Party from Tony Blair.

Brown, 56, said health, education and ending child poverty would be his priorities when he succeeds Blair as prime minister on Wednesday after a long, agonising wait for the top job.

''This week I will form a new government with new priorities to meet the new challenges of 2007 and beyond,'' Brown told a Labour meeting in Manchester, northern England, to applause.

Focusing his sights on a fourth straight term for Labour, Brown appointed a campaign coordinator to be ready, he said, for an election ''whenever the prime minister decides to call it''.

The next election is due by 2010 but Brown can call it whenever he chooses.

Brown promised to listen to the public and said there would be no backtracking on Blair's public service reforms that have angered parts of Labour.

''If people think we will achieve our goals in the future by retreating to failed approaches of the past, then they have not learned the lessons I have learned from the last 10 years,'' he said.

Harriet Harman, an experienced member of parliament for an inner-city London area, was named deputy Labour leader at the gathering after a closely fought six-week election.

''You want unity and you want discipline and you also want debate,'' Harman said, in a nod to Labour members who have grown disenchanted after a decade of Blair and years of sniping between the Blair and Brown camps.

There was no sign of the acrimony that has marred the relationship between the two most powerful men in British politics. Blair praised Brown and warmly shook his hand and Brown thanked him for his ten years as prime minister.

POLL BOUNCE On the economy, Brown promised to take long-term decisions that would ensure stability. He said health care would be his top priority.

On Iraq, he said there would be no rapid withdrawal of British troops, as many in Labour are calling for, and vowed to build ''the strongest multilateral approach'' to security challenges.

''We will meet our international obligations, we will learn lessons that need to be learned,'' he said.

Public disillusionment after a decade of Blair and anger over the Iraq war have meant Labour has lagged the opposition Conservative Party -- revived under youthful leader David Cameron, 40 -- in polls since last October.

Political analysts saw the Conservatives on track to at least force a hung parliament in the next election.

But a new poll today, in The Observer newspaper, put support for Labour at 39 percent and the Conservatives at 36 percent, giving Brown a welcome but expected boost.

Aides hope Brown's more serious manner and focus on substance will woo back voters who had grown tired of what one Labour lawmaker called Blair's ''glitz and razzmattazz'', his closeness to celebrity and his courting of millionaire donors.

Forty per cent of voters believed Brown would make a more capable prime minister, compared to just 22 per cent who prefer Cameron, the poll said.

REUTERS JT VC2244