Claims of a deteriorating relationship between the prime minister and his chancellor have been dismissed as "completely overblown" by Alastair Campbell.

The former Number 10 director of communications said the two men had forged "one of the most formidable political partnerships in British political history".

But his comments came as Sunday's newspapers devoted pages of coverage to the strained relationship between the two most powerful men in the government.

Last week they met for dinner in a bid to paper of their differences, and it has emerged that John Prescott hosted the "peace talks".

The deputy prime minister has already issued public warnings to the two men that they are more effective when they put forward a united front.

Speaking on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Campbell said that the two would "carry on working together and they will do so because they have strong beliefs and they have a programme for change which they are going to put through".

Entering the debate, defence secretary Geoff Hoon also denied that the prime minister and chancellor had fallen out.

"Over a long period of time, I have read in the newspapers accounts of so-called spats between the prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer and then I go into a meeting with them where they are working very successfully together, and I do wonder whether what I read in the newspapers is strictly accurate," he told Sky News.

"Frankly, I prefer to use the evidence of my own eyes, which is that they have an extremely effective, professional and very good working relationship."

But former Cabinet minister and Blair ally Stephen Byers also issued a call for a united front.

"Unity has to start at the top," he wrote in the Observer.