In a somber farewell, Blair moved to secure the party's future with a smooth transition to power.

The British leader looked overcome with emotion, struggling to retain his trademark broad grin as loud cheers rang out.

"Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right," Blair told party workers and supporters at Trimdon Labour Club in his Sedgefield constituency in northern England.

"I may have been wrong, but that's your call.

But believe one thing if nothing else.

I did what I thought was right for our country."

Blair's earnest announcement, which lacked his usual slick spin, had been long expected.

But he kept the timing a secret almost to the end.

In British parliamentary tradition, the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons serves as prime minister.

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, Blair's partner in reforming the Labour Party and a sometimes impatient rival in government, was expected to easily win election as the party's new leader and become the next prime minister.

Blair has stopped just short of openly endorsing Brown, a stern Scot who has long coveted the top job.

Last week, Blair said Brown would make 'a great prime minister'.

Blair embraced dozens of local activists as he arrived to greet around 250 supporters packed into the former mining village's Labour clubhouse.

Some chanted "four more years," but were chided by the leader as he began his speech.

"That's not on message for today," Blair joked.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced right after Blair's speech that he, too, would resign.

The 54-year-old Blair saved his long-expected announcement until he returned to the district where he won election to Parliament in 1982, and where he announced in 1994 that he was a candidate to leader the Labour Party.

The announcement came days after Blair celebrated the 10th anniversary of Labour's landslide election victory of May 1, 1997.

Since then, he has been one of the most praised, and reviled, leaders in British history - the man who transformed the Labour Party, helped bring an end to Northern Ireland's Troubles but angered many of his supporters by committing Britain to a bloody, unpopular war in Iraq.

Nampa-AP

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