In the event Blair emerged relatively unbruised from the first anniversary of the Iraq war after protests in London drew fairly modest numbers compared with those seen in the run-up to the conflict.

But that did little to quell speculation in the media here Sunday that Blair could be the next leader who supported the Iraq war to be driven from power.

In the latest attempt to put the controversy behind him, Blair is expected to make an unusual foray into the territory of his ally-cum-rival Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown this week with his first major speech on the economy for several years.

The timing of the speech has raised a few eyebrows here, coming just days after Brown fired the opening shots in an election battle with an annual budget report seen by many as laying bare his own leadership ambitions.

Blair's government must face parliamentary elections by mid-2006 but could call polls any time before then.

British newspapers said this weekend that the main threat to Blair's position now came not from the still largely unpopular opposition Conservative Party, but from his finance chief Brown.

For Blair's critics, the recent defeat of another key US ally in the invasion of Iraq, the now outgoing Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, has only underscored the fragility of the British leader's own position.

The change of government in Spain will leave Blair looking increasingly isolated at a summit of European Union heads of government Thursday and Friday.

While the gathering was supposed to focus on economic growth, in the event it will be overshadowed by the March 11 Mdrid massacre, which was seen as the trigger for the surprise ouster of Aznar's conservative government by disenchanted and angry anti-war voters.

Blair was conspicuous by his absence from any event marking Saturday's anniversary of the beginning of the conflict to remove Saddam Hussein one year ago.

Tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets of London to rally against the occupation of Iraq.

But attendance levels fell far short of the hundreds of thousands of people who had turned out to protest before the war.

Blair's previously immense popularity with British voters has taken a pounding in the wake of his decision to wage war on Iraq, which he insisted was necessary because of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

With no chemical or biological arms yet found in Iraq, and Blair's government still trying to recover from months of controversy over the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly, opinion polls have shown increasing levels of dissatisfaction with the prime minister.

For many commentators Brown -- who is widely reputed to have stepped aside to allow Blair to take the Labour leadership and go on to win an election landslide in 1997 -- is a natural successor.

Britain now has three major political parties, the Observer newspaper noted in a political opinion column: the Conservatives, the "Blair party" and the "Brown party".

The Mail on Sunday was even more damning, headlining its own political editorial: "Tony Blair, the ghost of Downing Street".

Lawmakers from Blair's ruling Labour Party now realise that it is "only a matter of time" before Brown takes the top job, Peter Oborne, political editor of right-wing periodical The Spectator wrote in the newspaper.

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