London mayor Ken Livingstone has applied to rejoin the Labour Party just two years after being kicked out for running as an independent.

Livingstone, who lost out in the Labour selection to Frank Dobson, now hopes that his party will welcome him back and grant him the candidacy for the 2004 mayoral poll.

Under Labour rules, expelled members cannot rejoin the party for five years. But Livingstone, who is seen by many as the only candidate capable of winning the election, hopes the party's ruling NEC will bend the rules to allow him to rejoin.

Livingstone has been a member of the Labour Party for over 30 years - serving both as the Labour chairman of the GLC and the MP for Brent East.

Labour Party chairman, Charles Clarke, is understood to have met with London Labour MPs last week to discuss how the party will select its candidate for the mayoral poll.

Some senior Labour figures are thought to be calling on the Labour leadership to readmit Livingstone in order to avoid a second embarrassing defeat in the Capital's mayoral elections in May 2004.

Labour leftwinger Diane Abbot said that the majority of Labour's London MPs believe Livingstone should now be readmitted to the party.

But John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, has expressed strong reservations about the move.

"I just don't believe this man in whatever he says,'' he told Breakfast with Frost. "But of course I will be fair in my consideration when it comes before the executive."

Gordon Brown is said to be leading calls for the expulsion rules to be observed to keep Livingstone out.

The mayor and the chancellor have been engaged in a bitter war of words of the future plans for London Underground.

Brown has repeatedly refused to meet Bob Kiley, the mayor's transport commissioner, to discuss the government's proposed public/private partnership for London Underground.

The mayor, who was accused of attacking a young man at a late-night party, has recently claimed to be the victim of a "smear" campaign by London's right-wing Evening Standard newspaper.