Brown says Blair only UK candidate for EU job

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is the only British candidate seeking one of the new top jobs in the European Union, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday.

Brown said Blair wanted to become the bloc's new president, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband would not attempt to become the EU high representative for foreign affairs.

"Britain has only one candidate for the European Council positions that are being discussed at the moment. That candidate is Tony Blair and his candidature is for the presidency of the council," Brown told a news conference. "These matters will be sorted out in the next few days."

Miliband was never a candidate for the high representative job, Brown added.

After emerging as a front-runner for the foreign affairs role, Miliband, 44, has distanced himself from the post and supporters say he wants to focus on his career in Britain.

His name often crops up on lists of possible future leaders of Brown's Labour Party and he was briefly linked to a challenge to his leadership last year.

The post of president of the Council of EU leaders is being created under the EU's Lisbon treaty, designed to make decision-making smoother at the top of a political and trading bloc representing nearly 500 million people.

The foreign affairs post will have greater powers under the treaty, to help the bloc raise its profile.

European diplomats say Belgian leader Herman Van Rompuy is ahead of Blair in the race for the job of president.