Amid a surge in popularity, Treasury Chief Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair as new leader of the Labour Party Sunday during a special conference in Manchester, England.

After a 13-year wait, Brown, 56, is set to take over the office of British prime minister on Wednesday.

Brown was confirmed as the new leader during a special conference in Manchester, England where a deputy was also elected from a crop of six hopefuls.

Brown said he will give his "best in the service of the country," Blair told party members. "I know his best is as good as it gets."

The Labour government could stay in office until 2010, by which time Brown has to call a general election.

In recent interviews Brown maintained he would try to create a cabinet "of all the talents."

He said he had learned his lesson about "top-down" government and promised to involve ordinary citizens in his decision-making.

Brown also maintained he would not seek to weaken ties with U.S. President George Bush to appease party members angered over the war in Iraq.

"It is in our national interest that the prime minister of the United Kingdom has a good relationship with the president of the United States," Brown said.

Harriet Harman was elected deputy leader Sunday. She has previously called for the government to apologize for mistakes over the Iraq war.

In her speech Sunday, she told the party: "You want us to acknowledge the anger and division caused by Iraq and we do. But we must give our total support to our armed forces as they support Iraq's fragile democracy."

Brown versus Blair

Brown, unchallenged in this bid for the party leadership, first vied for the position against Blair in 1994, but was persuaded to stand down.

The move was the beginning of an often fractious relationship between Brown and Blair.

As Blair prepared to formally hand over the leadership to Brown, a British newspaper reported his staff had made plans to fire the treasury chief in 2005.

The Independent on Sunday published excerpts of leaked government documents, which outlined plans to appoint a new treasury chief after the party's last national election victory.

Under the proposed plans, Brown was demoted in favour of splitting up the responsibilities of the treasury.

The plans were scrapped after Brown played a pivotal role in the 2005 election campaign the newspaper reported.

Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment on the leaked documents.

As Brown prepares for his new role, a new poll by Ipsos/Mori conducted for the British newspaper The Observer suggests support for the Labour party has grown by four per cent to 39 per cent over the past month.

This is the first time in eight months the Labour party has moved ahead of the Tories in the polls.

Brown's surge in the polls was expected by both the Tories and the Labour party coverage of his leadership campaign attempted to show a softer side to his character.

Some 1,970 UK adults were interviewed for the party share poll.

With files from the Associated Press