Tony Blair to resign on June 27

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that he will step down as prime minister on June 27, after a decade in office.

London, May 10 : British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that he will step down as prime minister on June 27, after a decade in office.

Blair will leave office as soon as a new leader is elected for the Labour Party.

"I've been prime minister of this country for just over 10 years," he told supporters in his Parliamentary constituency of Sedgewick.

"In this job, in the world of today, I think that's long enough for me, but more especially for the country. Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down."

Treasury chief Gordon Brown, Blair's partner in reforming the Labour Party and a sometimes impatient rival in government, was expected to easily win election a the party's new leader and become the next prime minister.

Blair's announcement is one that his Labour Party, and the nation, have been expecting for nearly three years, ever since the prime minister said in 2004 that his third term would be his last.

Blair met earlier with Cabinet members, who left No. 10 Downing Street without answering questions.

Brown has already declared he will be a candidate. At least one opponent from the party's left wing was expected to announce his candidacy on Thursday afternoon.

ANI