British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown sought on Sunday to quell speculation over who should run the Labour Party and turned the attack on the opposition Conservatives.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement on Thursday that he plans to retain power for five more years sparked frenzied talk over who will next lead the party and shocked allies of Brown, who has long been considered Blair's likely successor.
But speaking to reporters at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, Brown said the government had to unite around a common threat - the Conservative party, whose annual conference starts on Sunday. "United as a party, our task is to unite the country around the progressive consensus about our shared economic purpose as a nation - entrenching stability, investing in skills and science and improving our public services," he said.
Brown said he fully shared Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's call for the party to put talk of a leadership battle behind it.