TONY Blair told his Cabinet today of his plans to quit as party leader . . . but even his top ministers were left to wait for confirmation of the date until he had met his constituency party workers.

At the regular Thursday Cabinet meeting the Prime Minister opened the door for Chancellor Gordon Brown to take over at No 10 - probably on July 2.

After the short meeting - there was only one item on the agenda - Mr Blair was heading north to his Sedgefield constituency in County Durham to inform Labour party supporters before making his announcement public.

Earlier the Prime Minister's official spokesman had ended weeks of speculation by saying: "There will be a Cabinet. I don't think that will be quite as long as usual."

After the meeting the spokesman said: "The Prime Minister started Cabinet by acknowledging that it wasn't quite a normal day. He confirmed that he would be going to his constituency.

"He confirmed that he would make an announcement. He also confirmed that the announcement would be about his intentions and that those intentions had not changed."

Mr Blair remains Labour leader until his successor is formally elected at a special party conference, and he will continue as Prime Minister until he hands in his seals of office to the Queen.

Labour's National Executive Committee will meet within the next 72 hours to draw up a detailed timetable for an election to replace both Mr Blair and his deputy John Prescott, who has already announced he will quit at the same time as the Prime Minister.

The whole election process will take about seven weeks, meaning Mr Brown - if he is elected - could take office as early as July 2.

He is likely to face only a token left-wing challenge from either backbencher John McDonnell or former minister Michael Meacher.

The two are expected today to announce which of them is to try to stand against the Chancellor.

Downing Street insisted today the Prime Minister would not be a "lame duck" leader while his successor is being elected.

In addition to his normal duties Mr Blair expects to embark on a round of diplomacy visits ahead of next month's G8 and EU summits.