Blair to announce departure date

By David Clarke

LONDON (Reuters) - Ten years after sweeping into power, an increasingly unpopular Tony Blair will announce on Thursday when he plans to step aside and allow Chancellor Gordon Brown to take over as prime minister.

Blair will be remembered for helping bring peace to Northern Ireland after decades of violence, winning three straight elections for Labour for the first time and dragging his party away from its left-wing roots to the centre of politics.

But he leaves office out of favour among voters and within his party for sending troops to Iraq in 2003. A Labour rebellion in September forced him to say he would quit within a year.

He had long been expected to hand over power before the end of this third term to let another Labour leader pilot the party into the next election, expected in 2009.

Brown, whose official residence is next door to Blair's in London's Downing Street, has waited with increasing impatience for the departure of his neighbour. Critics say their rivalry, often bitter, has diluted the government's effectiveness.

Blair quits as only the second prime minister in a century to have served 10 years, tainted by a corruption scandal in which he became the first serving prime minister to be quizzed by police in a criminal probe.

His spokesman said Blair will make a statement about his future on Thursday. The prime minister will attend a cabinet meeting in London and then fly to his constituency to speak to local supporters.

Blair is expected to announce he will quit as Labour leader towards the end of June, triggering a leadership contest in which Brown is the only serious contender.