Mr John Prescott blew the lid on the long-running feud at the top of British politics in his autobio-

graphy, which is serialised in Britain's Sunday Times.

Branding Mr Brown as 'frustrating, annoying, bewildering and prickly', Mr Prescott wrote that he could 'go off like a bloody volcano' and sulked so often during meetings that they had to be abandoned.

Mr Prescott said he spent much of his time in office as a peace-

maker, with 'hundreds' of phone calls and meetings to smooth out the Blair-Brown spats.

Mr Brown stood aside for Mr Blair when he successfully ran for the Labour Party leadership in 1994 - long rumoured to be on the understanding that the latter would do the same for Mr Brown during a second term in office.

But Mr Blair repeatedly reneged on promises to make way.

'He was definitely going in, six months, perhaps a year, certainly before the next election. When it never happened, Gordon was furious and the whole cycle began again,' he said.

'Tony would say Gordon wasn't cooperating with him at all. Gordon would say he'd been cheated again.'

Mr Prescott told Mr Blair to sack Mr Brown if he was fed up with him and advised Mr Brown to resign if he felt he had been misled. 'But neither could take the final step...Tony knew that sacking Gordon would tear the party apart.'

Mr Prescott also accused Mr Blair of 'using' him and treating him 'like a performing seal'.

He said they did not socialise and had seen each other only once since resigning together. 'We were never friends,' he said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE