Brown backs Blair for EU presidency

(LONDON) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was backing his predecessor Tony Blair to become president of the European Union, in an interview published Sunday.

The EU's Lisbon Treaty of reforms includes the new post but must still be fully ratified in Ireland and elsewhere before it can come into force.

"We're supporting Tony but we've got to persuade other countries," Brown told the News of the World, Britain's biggest-selling weekly newspaper, during last week's trip to Brussels for an EU summit.

Brown spent 10 years from 1997 as finance minister under Blair, before taking over once Blair resigned. Their relationship veered from very close to fractious.

Asked whether Blair would play any part in campaigning for the governing Labour Party in the next general election, due within 12 months, Brown said: "You'll have to ask him".

Among other names mooted for the EU president's job -- which will have a two and a half year term renewable once -- is former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez.

Since stepping down as the British premier in June 2007, Blair has been the envoy for the Middle East Quartet -- comprising the EU, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- which is struggling to mediate the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.