The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, was lavished with high praise from the Prime Minister, as Downing Street attacked "silly and counterproductive" claims about a rift between them.

Tony Blair's spokesman said the Prime Minister's view was that Mr Brown was "an extremely excellent Chancellor for whom he has immense regard, politically and personally".

He insisted that attempts to "unsettle" the close relationship would fail.

Official spokesmen and ministers have been working to avert potential political damage caused by continuing stories about tensions between the two most powerful men in the Government.

The book at the centre of the controversy

Thr turmoil started with the publication of a biography of the Chancellor in which Mr Blair was said to have broken a pact not to stand in a leadership contest and that the Chancellor nursed a continuing grievance about it. In the event it was Mr Brown who stood aside in 1994 after John Smith's death.

There was further controversy when it emerged that Chief Whip Nick Brown had talked to author Paul Routledge about the contest, with the blessing of the Chancellor. Mr Bown has always declined to speak about it himself.

A succession of senior Labour figures including Donald Dewar and John Prescott have poured scorn on the idea of a 'turf war' between Blair and Brown. And support came from the unlikely source of the ex-Tory Chancellor, Norman Lamont, who said: "Mr Blair and Mr Brown are close friends ... exceptionally close."

Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, dismissed claims of a Blair-Brown split.

He told the BBC that media attention on the matter was "the kind of froth of politics".

He said: "There is no doubt about it, the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair goes back an awful long time."

"There is a very firm government with a very clear idea of what it wants to do with a leader who has that clear idea ... you will judge us in five years' time on whether we successfully achieve what we set out to do."

The Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewar, said that the book at the source of the controversy was unofficial and unimportant.

"This rakes over some very old political stories ... there is no split of any kind," he said.

The author of 'Gordon Brown - A Biography' played down the furore created by his book and told the BBC that he never intended to create problems within the Labour Party's hierarchy.

"I think there has been a rather hysterical overreaction, quite frankly, from some of the Prime Minister's staff and I am not too sure why really."

But he tempered his comments by adding that there was "a residual sense of hurt" in Mr Brown about the leadership contest in 1994.

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