Tony Blair and Gordon Brown met for dinner last night after a day in which nearly a decade of resentment and tension broke into open warfare.

Gordon Brown used an early morning media blitz to make clear his anger over Tony Blair's refusal to give him a place on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

He told BBC Breakfast: "The reason that came up is that I ran the Labour Party's general election campaign in 1997 and I was a member of the NEC at the time. I also ran it in 2001 and wasn't, and I felt it would be better running the general election campaign from being a member of the NEC."

Asked whether he would run a possible election campaign in 2005, Mr Brown said: "I have to say it's a decision not for me, it's a decision for the prime minister."

Today's papers assert that the chancellor is also furious over Peter Mandelson's increasing power within Number 10.

According to the Telegraph, the pair, who fell out over Mandelson's decision to back Tony Blair for the leadership in 1994, disagree on how to fight the next general election campaign.

Mandelson is said to favour pushing the Tories out of the centre ground, while the chancellor wants to highlight the differences between Labour and the opposition.