Cherie Blair denies calling finance minister a liar

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Prime Minister

Tony Blair's wife Cherie was at the centre of a row at the Labour Party conference, allegedly accusing her husband's likely successor of lying about their working relationship.

News agency Bloomberg said one of its television producers overheard the prime minister and Labour leader's wife say "well, that's a lie" when Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told delegates in his speech it had been a "privilege" to work with Blair.

Blair's office moved immediately to scotch the reports, to prevent the alleged comments -- said to have been made outside the main conference hall -- overshadowing the finance minister's set-piece address.

"The story is totally untrue," said a spokesman, adding: "Bloomberg should withdraw it immediately."

Cherie Blair later told reporters, who had spent a frantic afternoon trying to track her down: "Honestly guys, I hate to spoil your story, but I didn't say it and I don't believe it either."

But the news agency stood by its story, with the producer, Carolin Lotter telling Sky News television: "She was walking through the exhibition centre, which is where all the screens were all showing the chancellor's speech.

"Everybody was watching, everybody could listen to it and she was just walking pass one of the screens when I heard her say, 'well, that's a lie'.

"I was not more than a metre or two away. I literally had to step out of the way otherwise she would have run me down".

She said Blair's wife, a human rights lawyer, was not talking to her, but added: "It was more like a throw away comment she made, to no-one in particular. She was with her security staff around her."

Asked if she was certain about what she said she heard, she answered: "Yes".

The row dominated early evening news bulletins in Britain because of its potential to reopen old wounds and undermine Blair and Brown's attempts to draw a line under their reported long-standing enmity.

That apparent rift -- said to have been fueled by Brown's frustration at Blair reneging on a deal to hand over power -- prompted a public row earlier this month in which Brown loyalists demanded Blair say when he would step down.

The pair have made a show of unity in the weeks since and ahead of the conference, in which both have sought to stress the need to remould party policy to meet the demands of the present and the future -- and win the next election.