British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told ministers that he plans to leave office next summer, according to news reports yesterday. Blair's Downing Street office refused to comment on the reports. The Mail said senior government sources had told it that Blair told Brown in February that he would resign in July 2007. Blair has said he plans to serve a full third term, but this week reassured MPs from his governing Labour Party that he would step aside in time for his successor to settle into office before the next general election, expected in 2009.

The Independent said it had questioned a Cabinet minister about whether he had been told by Blair that he would go next summer. "I'm not going to tell you exactly what Tony said but I wouldn't disagree with that," it quoted him saying.

The newspaper quoted another minister as saying that "almost half the Cabinet" has now been given private assurances about a departure date by Blair.

The Sunday Times said Treasury chief Gordon Brown, Blair's likely successor, had turned down Blair's offer to hand over power to him in the fall of 2007. But a close ally of Blair said he had no knowledge of any plan for the prime minister to quit next year.

Lord Charles Falconer, a cabinet minister who has known Blair since their schooldays and shared an apartment with him in the 1970s, said he was unaware of any planned resignation date.

Most British do not want a Scot as their prime minister, according to an opinion poll published yesterday that could be an ill omen for Brown. By a narrow majority of 52 per cent, the British now seem weary of the idea of a Scot at the helm of state. The BBC poll revealed that opposition to Scots at Number 10 Downing Street was strongest in England with 55pc of those asked.

PHOTO CAPTION

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is shown on May 3, 2006. (Reuters)