A five-page memo by the prime minister’s closest aides has revealed that Labour Party leaders were drawing up a precise plan for Tony Blair to step down gracefully.

|PIC1|The leaked document has left Downing Street embarrassed as it shows secret plans for Tony Blair’s final days in office.

The memo was drawn up by Philip Gould and at least three other members of Mr Blair’s closest aides, and recommended that the prime minister seek invitations from various light entertainment TV and radio programmes on the eve of his departure.

The information leaked to the Daily Mirror did not give any exact date set for Blair’s departure but told that “time is not an unlimited commodity.”

Downing Street confirmed the authenticity of the document but said neither the prime minister, nor any senior Downing Street staff had seen its contents.

Blair‘s official spokesman said, “What he is interested in is substance, not image. What he is interested in is examining the issues.

“He knows people will make up their own minds about him and his record; what he wants to do is get on with addressing the immediate issues and analysing and addressing those issues and developing answers to them.”

Blair last week rejected calls to use this month's Labour Party conference to name a timetable for his departure, and this week it has been revealed that one minister and four government aides are among 17 normally loyal Labour MPs who have written to Blair urging him to quit.

|TOP|Senior minister Hilary Armstrong later said Mr Blair would be gone by the time of the 2007 Labour conference. In addition, forty-nine Labour MPs have so far signed a statement saying they are satisfied with a 12-month timetable, according to the BBC.

Meanwhile, the prime minister has been busy mediating the situation in Afghanistan.

With a suicide bombing in Kabul further increasing the number of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the British Government has called for more countries to help with the increasingly dangerous peacekeeping efforts.

The death in Kabul brings to 37 the number of UK personnel killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, following the loss of 14 troops when an RAF Nimrod crashed near Kandahar on Saturday. Some 117 British troops have now died in Iraq since the outbreak of hostilities in 2003.

|AD|Blair said the resurgent Taliban should not be allowed to turn Afghanistan into a breeding ground for terrorism again.

However, the head of the UK army has warned that British soldiers are only just able to cope with the demands being placed on them.

Speaking after a visit to a children's home in York, Blair said: "This is a terrible tragedy in particular for the families of the servicemen involved.

"It's so important for us to make sure we stand firm in Afghanistan and stop that country being a training ground for the export of terrorism around the world.

"We should be very grateful and very proud of the fact that Britain's armed forces are prepared to stand up to this threat.

"It's very tough for our armed forces at the moment, particularly in Afghanistan where the fighting is very tough and hard, but it is very important.

"We should be very proud and thankful as a country that we have our armed forces."