LONDON - IT'S been a rare good week for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has been struggling to restore confidence in his leadership.

After a well-received speech to the governing Labour Party's annual conference, Mr Brown received a little 'bounce' in poll ratings published over the weekend.

He was cheered at the conference in Manchester, despite earlier rumblings in party ranks that had threatened to evolve into a full-blown rebellion.

'I know who I am, I know what I want to do in this job. And I know the best way to deal with tough times is to face them down,' he told conference delegates on Tuesday.

Apparently, some Britons agreed.

An ICM poll for The Guardian newspaper published on Saturday showed Labour nine points behind the opposition Conservative Party - compared with 15 points a month earlier. For the poll, ICM questioned 1,012 adults by telephone on Wednesday and Thursday.

The change in standings was just within the poll's error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points - meaning it is theoretically possible that Labour gained no ground. Nevertheless, the poll suggested Mr Brown was more secure in his job than a week ago.

Mr Brown told the conference, 'this is no time for a novice' - apparently taking a swipe at both his Conservative Party rival, Mr David Cameron, and pretenders within the Labour Party.

One analyst said he also was helped when his government facilitated a quick takeover of HBOS PLC when the bank company's share prices plummeted, and with the government's action to temporarily ban short-selling in financial stocks - which some considered a cause of HBOS' woes.

'That is a very top-level thing. It was cleverly done, it was done at the right time, it was done speedily, and it looked decisive,' said Professor Patrick Dunleavy of political science at the London School of Economics.

Mr Brown has been criticised before for being indecisive - notably a year ago when he dithered about calling a snap election, and ultimately decided against it despite high poll ratings at the time.

The ICM poll put Labour's support at 32 per cent - the same level as when Mr Tony Blair stood down as prime minister on June 27, 2007.

Respondents offered less comfort to Mr Brown when answering whether Labour should stick with him as prime minister - 47 per cent said stay with Mr Brown, while 44 per cent wanted Labour to install someone else.

Were they confident Mr Brown could steer the country through difficult times? 40 per cent said yes, 52 per cent said no.

But the poll suggested many Conservative Party backers were less than decided.

Of the respondents who backed the Conservatives, 45 per cent said they might switch to another party by the time a national election is held. Among Labour respondents, 32 per cent said they might change. The election must be held by May 2010.

The Conservatives open their annual conference in Birmingham on Sunday.

While Mr Brown was in the United States lending his support to President George W. Bush's US$700 billion bailout plan, British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was looking for a rescuer after its shares plunged to US$0.32 (S$0.46), from about US$0.55 at the start of the year.

A series of reports, meanwhile, showed that the average price of a British house had declined more than 10 per cent in the past year.

Mr Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of research at Charles Stanley & Co. stockbrokers in London, said journalists are obsessed with Mr Brown's chances of surviving, but the markets were not.

'The fact is the markets have written him off and have turned their attention to much more important matters,' Mr Batstone-Carr said. -- AP