Gordon Brown today proposed a bold new Marshall Plan for the Third World that will involve full debt relief for poor nations, a rewriting of global trade rules and an international aid fund that would raise half a trillion dollars over the next decade.

The Chancellor also announced that he had won agreement from key Western nations for an immediate moratorium on debt repayments by those countries worst affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

But Mr Brown found himself upstaged by Tony Blair's decision to hold his monthly Downing Street press conference at exactly the same time as the Chancellor's appearance in Edinburgh - even though the Prime Minister spent a large part of that conference praising Mr Brown.

Television channels relegated the Chancellor by showing both press conferences on a split screen, but carrying the sound only from the Blair conference - while Mr Brown mouthed his announcement silently.

A long-running dispute between the two men has intensified since Mr Blair's announcement that he will serve out a full term if he wins the next election - widely expected in May - instead of presiding over an orderly handover of power to Mr Brown.

Friends of Mr Brown say that he is angry at being excluded from the shaping of the Labour manifesto, a task now being led by Alan Milburn, an arch-Blairite.

That was denied by Mr Blair, who said this morning: "There’s no way you can fight an election campaign with anything other than the Chancellor and the economy right at the centre of it."

Asked if Mr Brown would remain as Chancellor after an election, Mr Blair replied: "He has done a great job. He is doing a great job. He will continue to do a great job... I'm not getting into what happens after an election."

David Charter, Chief Political Correspondent of The Times, said Messrs Blair and Brown had tried to paper over the cracks today but Mr Brown's speech had been in the diary for a long time before Downing Street decided to call the Prime Minister's press conference for the same time.

He said: "If it was an accident it seems rather careless, given how prickly and sensitive Gordon Brown's supporters are. If it wasn't an accident, it does show quite a significant amount of tension between them.

"It's partly a function of the Conservative threat not being quite so dangerous. The one thing that would stop this rather petty rivalry between Blairites and Brownites is a serious resurgence in Tory fortunes."

The power-struggle between the two men and their supporters also appears to have spilled over into Britain's response to the Asian tsunami disaster.

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