Michael Howard has set out the Conservatives' agenda in front of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

His speech, to a conference for journalists, has been viewed as an attempt to secure the support of Rupert Murdoch's British media organisations - Sky broadcasting, the Times and Sunday Times and - most high profile of all - the Sun.

Some commentators argue that the Sun's criticisms of Neil Kinnock as Labour Party leader lost him the 1992 general election.

Speaking in Cancun on Friday night, the Tory chief stressed the need for reform in both the UK economy and public services.

"The great irony in Britain is that while Gordon Brown... urges his European counterparts to become more like America, he is actually making our economy more and more like theirs," he said.

"To be sure, on the macro level Gordon Brown has made the right decisions. He was right to give the responsibility for setting interest rates to our central bank, the Bank of England. But that loss of day-to-day macroeconomic control seems to have left Mr Brown and his mandarins with too little to do.

"So they have put their energies into work in micro-managing the British economy. And we are all suffering as a result."

Addressing British, American and Australian journalists, Howard repeated the Tory pledge to freeze civil service recruitment, keep the rate of public spending growth below that of the economy and to cut waste.

"Our overall approach to economic reform is based on clear principles," he said.

"It is designed to set business free. But it will also stop us having to implement Labour's third term tax rises, which are an inevitable consequence if they win a third election. And it will get us to a position where we can actually start to reduce taxes.

"Low tax economies are the most successful economies. They create more jobs, they attract more investment and they generate more resources to pay for the public services we all use."

Public Service Reform

On this issue, the Tory leader insisted that reform was necessary both in the National Health Service and in public schools.

"We want to learn from other countries, which do not have waiting lists for operations, or which have higher standards of public education," he said.

"We want to pass control down to the people who can best use it - parents and patients.

"Tony Blair sometimes sounds as though he understands that. But he is unable to deliver this kind of change. His party, and its union paymasters, are wedded to a philosophy which puts producers before customers.

"Too many of them still believe fundamentally in equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. Too many of them still think, 'if everybody can't have it then nobody should'.

"My attitude to public services is different. I ask 'if some people already have it, why can't everyone?'."