Tony Blair has moved to place himself at the head of a movement to modernise the world's socialist parties.

In a keynote speech to the Socialist International conference, he urged left-wing leaders from more than 120 countries to follow New Labour's lead.

He effectively echoed the words he regularly used when reforming his own party - "modernise or die."

He also hinted that it was high time the group changed its name which, to modernisers, still smacks too much of the past.

In a short speech in which he deliberately avoided using the word "socialism" to describe anything happening within the world's left-wing states, he declared labels were unimportant.

"Some will talk of social democracy, some of democratic socialism - some of the centre, some just of the left.

"I do not minimise the real and genuine debate that underpins these terms. I simply say it is the debate that is important, not the labels."

Third way

But he immediately went on to define his much vaunted Third Way as "modernised social democracy."

"The Third Way is not about splitting the difference between Conservatives and Social Democrats but is about modernising social democracy in a way that liberates the potential of every individual, not the few represented by the right."

It is a definition that many of his colleagues would have found difficult to accept.

Germany's beleaguered Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has launched his equivalent of the Third Way - Die Neue Mitte.

But others, including French premier Lionel Jospin, have a far more "old Labour", interventionist approach to socialism.

There is little doubt, however, that Mr Blair is seen as one of the most successful centre-left leaders around the world and his views carry considerable weight.

However, some of his colleagues will also have been well aware of the pain Britain's Labour Party had to go through to modernise itself and may hesitate at going down the same route.

They will also be carefully watching the future of the New Labour government and its Third Way to see if the experiment works in the longer term.