By Prasun Sonwalkar,

London, Sep 8 (IANS) The uneasy truce in the Labour party collapsed within hours of the Prime Minister Tony Blair announcing his departure in 12 months, as former Home secretary Charles Clarke termed Chancellor Gordon Brown's behaviour during this week's turmoil as 'absolutely stupid'.

Clarke, a political heavyweight with considerable clout in the trade unions, is the senior-most Labour functionary to have openly criticised Brown - who is widely tipped to be take over from Blair as prime minister next year.

Clarke's diatribe against Brown in a media interview Friday is seen as yet another round of infighting between the warring Blair and Brown camps. Blair's advisors believe that the current crisis in the party was engineered by Brown, who has been waiting for nearly a decade to take over as the Labour leader and prime minister.

Blair is said to be already working on putting up a strong candidate against Brown when the leadership contest is announced next year. This candidate is most likely to be former Health secretary, Alan Milburn, who quit last year on the ground that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Clarke told the Evening Standard that by not using his influence to halt the round of letters by party MPs to Blair to resign, Brown had proved himself unfit to take over as the prime minister.

Clarke said: "What he should have done was come out strongly and distance himself from them. He could have done that with a click of his fingers. This has been complete madness."

Referring to pictures in the media of Brown leaving Downing Street with a 'sharky smile' on his face, Clarke said: "A lot of people are very upset and cross about that. It was absolutely stupid, a stupid, stupid thing to do."

Stating that Brown must "prove his fitness" to be prime minister, Clarke alleged that Brown lacked confidence and that he was a nervous person.

Clarke added: "That could all change when the burden of waiting for the job is lifted from his shoulders and I think it probably will. But the problem is, nobody really knows. He is not where he should be at the moment. He is talented and brilliant but there are these little incidences like the grin in the car that build up a terrible picture."

As the war of words within the Labour Party continued, several dismayed functionaries such as minister Harriet Harman appealed to colleagues to 'shut up' or risk letting the Conservative party into power again.

Communities secretary Ruth Kelly said colleagues should now "settle down" after Blair made his announcement yesterday that he would be gone in 12 months. She appealed for 'a period of calm and reflection' following bitter and acrimonious week-long infighting within the party.

"People are entitled to their views but I don't think Charles' (Clarke) views represent the vast majority of my colleagues," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

BBC's Nick Asinder wrote: "So, the war goes on... And that has ensured the issue of whether Blair can really hang on for a year with this sort of stuff exploding around his head is once again the key question."