William Hague has moved to shore-up support for Iain Duncan Smith.

The move came ahead of a meeting of the 1922 Committee - which was expected to discuss the fall-out from the Central Office sackings row.

Hague warned that criticism of the Tory leader should be done privately.

And he called on MPs and activists to focus on May's local elections.

"The Conservative Party should make sure it makes a good job of those election campaigns, to give resolute and clear support to its leader and, if it has criticisms of him, it should put them to him rather than announce them on the media," he said.

"My position is clear. I support Iain Duncan Smith, I want him to succeed. The Conservative Party has every opportunity to succeed and now it needs everybody to make sure they work hard for those local elections and concentrate on that."

The meeting of the 1922 Committee came amid bitter recriminations following Iain Duncan Smith's decision to sack two senior Central Office strategists.

Despite an invitation to attend the meeting, the party leader has signalled that he would not put in an appearance.

Sources say a grilling before backbenchers would have been read as a sign of weakness by his critics.

But the meeting was tipped to see MPs venting anger at Duncan Smith's recent actions.

One MP said the decision to shake-up Central Office was a "monstrous misjudgement" which sorely backfired on the leadership.

Members of the party's executive board were said to be "incandescent with rage" following his decision.

Party chairman Theresa May, who was last week the subject of negative briefing, was also said to be angry at the lack of consultation before the cull.

Michael Portillo enflamed tensions late last week when he claimed the crisis had been "manufactured at the centre".

He also warned that the decision to sack key modernisers "looks like a narrowing of the party".

Anxious to end the fighting, Conservative chief whip David Maclean branded Portillo's attack as "selfish and destructive".

The events brought fresh suggestions of an imminent leadership challenge, but with war on Iraq looming Conservative MPs were expected to pull back from such a potentially divisive move.

But the feud is far from over, Duncan Smith's critics warn.

William Hill has cut the odds of him leaving by the end of the year from 13-8 to 11-10.