Tony Blair backed Chancellor Gordon Brown to succeed him as prime minister for the first time today but insisted he will only step down once he completes his radical reform plans.
Mr Blair, who won't seek a fourth term in office after a third straight election win in May, gave Mr Brown his strongest and most public backing yet in a newspaper interview.
"I am absolutely happy that Gordon will be my successor," Mr Blair said in an interview with the Sun. "He needs the confidence of knowing that he will succeed me and that's perfectly fair enough."
Mr Blair has previously avoided publicly naming Mr Brown as his successor, choosing instead to stress his respect for the long-serving treasury chief's economic record.
Many analysts think Mr Blair will step aside for Mr Brown within two years, but the prime minister insisted he will see his reform agenda through to the next election, expected in 2009.
"I am not going anywhere," Mr Blair told the Sun. "I am here and I am going to see the whole programme through. Six months ago we had an election and people expect me to carry it through."
Facing rebellion within his party and working with a reduced majority in parliament, Mr Blair acknowledged it will be tough to push through his education, health and welfare reforms.
"I am confident I can win the arguments and get those changes," he told the newspaper. "If you can't run a government with a 70 majority in the (lower) House (of Commons), you're not much of a prime minister."
Political folklore says Mr Brown stood aside for Mr Blair in the 1994 Labour Party leadership contest in return for a guarantee that Mr Blair, when prime minister, would one day stand aside in his favour.
The prime minister's supporters deny there was a deal, while Mr Brown's camp say a pact was made and it should have been honoured.