Britain's Tony Blair set out his vision for a third term in office on Monday in a bid to shift the spotlight onto domestic policies that win or lose elections and off the divisive war in Iraq.
Blair, who is expected to call a general election next year, promised "bold and far-reaching reform" of state-funded services as he also sought to counter attacks he has become a "lame duck" prime minister by setting a date for his own departure.
"The message is clear: press on with confidence; don't hang back in hesitation," Blair said. "Use the experience of the first two terms to drive through lasting change in the third."
Blair's keynote speech on welfare reform comes a day before a report on Britain's looming pensions crisis is expected to warn that the pensions shortfall is much greater than feared.
The pensions black hole is expected to be a key battleground in the election. The prime minister pledged pension reform but said details of the government's plans would only come later.
The pensions debate takes some of the focus off the Iraq war but any respite from Iraq will be short-lived.
Blair is set to address parliamentarians from his Labour Party later on Monday in the wake of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq and a report that concluded Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will be grilled by parliament on Tuesday.
The Iraq war split Britain and Labour and has eroded Blair's public trust ratings.
Polls put Labour on track to win the next election but violence in Iraq has blighted Blair's efforts to refocus on election-winning issues like schools and hospitals.
Talk of a leadership battle and a feud between Blair and finance minister Gordon Brown has also hounded the prime minister.
Earlier this month, Blair sought to silence rumours about his future when he pledged to serve a full third term if Labour wins the election expected in May or June, but not a fourth.
On Monday, Blair again stamped his mark on Labour's future, using the "New Labour" tag he coined to win the 1997 election and stressing his zeal for reform.
"Far from retreating from New Labour, we need radically to extend its reach," he said. "The biggest advances have always been due to the boldest reforms."
The Conservatives plan to make trust a key plank of the general election battle. While they backed the Iraq war, they claim Blair misled Britain over the reasons for the conflict.
The report last week by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) contradicted Blair's pre-war assertion that Iraq had banned weapons primed for use and has inflamed political anger over the war.
Most Britons do not blame Blair for Bigley's death but it gave fresh ammunition to his critics who say Britain should not have gone to war, that it was waged on a false premise and that poor planning has allowed an insurgency to flourish.