Brown still backs Blair for top EU job

Prime Minister Gordon Brown still strongly supports Tony Blair to be European Union president, his spokesman said on Monday, despite signs his chances have faded.

Brown's spokesman also denied that Downing Street was lobbying for Foreign Secretary David Miliband to be given the EU's top foreign policy job. Both roles are being created under the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty.

"If Tony Blair wishes to be a candidate, the prime minister is four if not five square behind him," the official spokesman, who by convention is not named, told reporters.

"The prime minister will continue to campaign to the extent you can campaign for a candidate who hasn't revealed himself."

Blair's chances of getting the job seem to have faded following last week's European summit and consensus among the 27 EU nation states looks to be building around Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy instead.

Miliband has publicly ruled himself out of the top foreign affairs job although his stock seems to be rising in Brussels.

Brown's spokesman insisted it "simply isn't correct" to suggest that the prime minister's office at Downing Street is lobbying for Miliband, adding: "I think the position has been made very clear by the foreign secretary."