BRITAIN: The question of Tony Blair's departure date seems set to dominate Labour's annual conference later this month, despite the prime minister's demand that his party "stop obsessing" about the issue.
In a pre-emptive strike yesterday, Mr Blair used a newspaper interview to insist he had already said enough about his intentions "for anyone reasonable to know I will do my best for the country and the party to make sure that when I do depart it is done in a stable and sensible and orderly way".
In the meantime, he suggested, he should be allowed to "get on with the job of prime minister", and Labour with the job of governing, lest people conclude the government was paralysed and had run out of steam.
"The danger for Labour is actually stasis," Mr Blair warned, while again dismissing demands that he set a timetable for his departure from Number 10 and indicating that he plans to say nothing further on the subject either before or during the party conference in Manchester at the end of the month.
However, it seemed the tactic might have backfired as a chorus of discontent from a range of MPs greeted Mr Blair's Times interview, with an explicit warning of "a messy conference" ahead should this indeed prove his last word on the leadership issue.
There were reports of renewed pressure in Scotland and Wales for a change of leadership - or at least a timetable for the election of Mr Blair's successor - ahead of next May's elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
And even MPs from the new intake elected to Westminster last year broke silence to say Mr Blair had brought the situation upon himself (by saying he would not seek a fourth term) and that the speculation would not be silenced by his interview.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP said the issue for her was neither ideological nor policy but a need for greater clarity arising from Mr Blair's own decision about his future.
In his interview, Mr Blair again argued that to be precise about his plans would destroy his authority and hand an opportunity to the Conservatives. But Ms McCarthy-Fry countered: "I think we've reached a point where not saying anything is going to be more damaging. We seem to be stuck in a quagmire where everything goes back to the leadership."
Again without demanding a specific date, Lyn Brown MP said: "You can't put the genie back in the bottle. There is no way to stop speculation. How are we going to do it? Certainly not by a front-page interview in the Times. This is just ridiculous."
Allies of Chancellor Gordon Brown, meanwhile, were furious with an interview in which Mr Blair denied trying to tie the hands of his presumed successor. Former cabinet minister Andrew Smith claimed continued uncertainty was "very damaging" and that the leadership question needed to be sorted sooner rather than later: "I would have thought it's clear to everyone that the debilitating uncertainty over the leadership can't go on - it's bad for the country, bad for the government, bad for the Labour Party and ultimately bad for Tony Blair himself."
Former deputy chief whip George Mudie claimed this "sorry, spreading situation" was now extending "to ardent Blairites" and warned of "a very messy conference" if Mr Blair refused "to go with dignity".
He said Mr Blair should follow the example of others before him, thank the party for the privilege of leading it and be thanked in turn for having led, before leaving the stage "in the secure knowledge that the party was greater than any of them".