London  - Britain's battered ruling Labour Party was urged Monday to "defeat fatalism" and replace it with hope despite widespread economic gloom and poor opinion poll ratings for the party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The message of optimism was relayed to delegates at Labour's annual party conference in Manchester by David Miliband, the 43-year- old Foreign Secretary seen as the frontrunner to replace Brown in a possible future leadership contest.

"Just as I hate defeatism about our country, I hate defeatism about our party," said Miliband to the applause of delegates yearning to be cheered up after a string of dismal polls and speculation over a leadership challenge to Brown.

The message to the party was to "defeat fatalism and replace it with hope," he said.

Miliband, who has denied any plans to challenge Brown, praised the prime minister's influential role on the international stage and his commitment to the fight against world poverty.

"It's no exaggeration to say you have transformed the political debate about international development... and we should take inspiration from you," said Miliband, turning to Brown.

But the youthful Foreign Secretary, in what many saw as a reference to criticism of Brown's alleged weak leadership, also said: "An age of massive change needs leadership from a party dedicated to change."

Miliband said the party needed to "prove the fatalists wrong" and move forward confidently in the conviction that it could beat the rival Conservatives at the next general election.

Brown, who has admitted having made "mistakes" during his 15 months as prime minister, and pledged to "do better," is due to address the conference in what has been described as a "make or break" keynote address Tuesday.

However, analysts said the immediate threat to his position appears to have passed as ministers have displayed public loyalty and "dissidents" unhappy with his leadership have given up their fight.

The recent turmoil on world markets and the general economic downturn had also helped turn round Brown's fortunes for the time being, analysts said.

Later this week, Brown is expected to outline his plan for an "improved early warning system" to avert future financial crises in a globalized world to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He will be accompanied on the US trip by Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who Monday promised to tighten up banking regulations in Britain.

Darling told the conference that the government would introduce legislation to tighten up supervision of the banking system and "review the bonus culture" in the City of London.

He said Britain was putting in place, "here and internationally," tougher financial regulations to stabilize the banking system.

A package of measures would be introduced to parliament in October to strengthen supervision of the banking system and make it easier to intervene if a bank gets into trouble.

Darling pledged to look at the culture of "huge bonuses which have distorted the way decisions are made."

However, he stopped short of announcing a clampdown on the practice of paying performance-related bonuses to individuals in world of finance and banking, which some analysts have said is partly to blame for the current crisis.

At the Labour conference, trade union leaders have been calling for an end to the bonus culture and "greed in the City," and also demanded a so-called windfall tax on the profits of oil companies.

"If you can't regulate the bonus culture, then tax it out of existence," Derek Simpson, leader of the Unite industrial trade union, said Monday. (dpa)