British PM confirms election date

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has fired the starting gun on a month-long election race, setting May 6 as the date for voting in what could be the closest poll for a generation.

Announcing the widely-anticipated date after asking Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve parliament, a stern-faced Brown said Britain's fragile economic recovery was at risk if the opposition Conservatives took power.

"Britain is on the road to recovery and nothing we do should put that recovery at risk," he told reporters. "Our economy is now moving forward, but to withdraw millions of pounds from the economy would put recovery at risk."

Conservatives already ahead

Brown's confirmation of a date triggers a month of campaigning in which his centre-left Labour will battle to claw back ground from David Cameron's centre-right Conservatives, who are ahead in opinion polls.

A Labour victory would secure the party's fourth consecutive term in office and would be a first under Brown, who took over as leader from Tony Blair in 2007. The Tories are vying for their first win since a surprise 1992 victory.

In a contest likely to be dominated by the economy, Brown, 59, is contrasting his role in steering Britain to safety after the global financial crisis with what he says is 43-year-old Cameron's inexperience.

Cameron, who has sought to extensively modernised the party of Margaret Thatcher since becoming leader in 2005, called it "the most important general election for a generation".

Economy takes centre stage

"It is about the future of our economy, it's about the future of our society, it's about the future of our country," he said.

"It comes down to this. You don't have to put up with another five years of Gordon Brown."

Whoever wins faces tackling a budget deficit of around 167 billion pounds (254 billion dollars, 188 billion euros).

Cameron wants swift cuts to public services but Brown says these must be delayed to protect the fragile recovery.

Campaign inspired by Obama

Brown -- whose campaign team has been inspired by Barack Obama's US presidential election victory -- kicked off official campaigning at a supermarket in Kent, southeast England.

Cameron headed for a hospital in Birmingham, central England, while Nick Clegg of the centrist third party Liberal Democrats was meeting young people in Watford, north of London.

Experts and polls suggest the election will be the closest for a long time.

"I think this is going to be the most thrilling election Britain has had for more than 20 years," Fraser Nelson, editor of right-wing political magazine the Spectator, told AFP.

"The two parties are far closer than anyone would have thought possible at this stage in the game."

Bookies favour Conservatives

Bookmakers Paddy Power make the Conservatives favourite to win the most seats in the vote but say the chances of a hung parliament -- where no one party has an overall majority -- are high.

The Conservatives held a double-digit opinion poll lead for much of Brown's premiership but that fell to single figures after January's announcement that Britain had emerged from its worst recession since World War II.

While a Daily Express/Opinium poll Tuesday gave the Tories a 10-point lead, a Guardian/ICM poll put Labour just four points behind Cameron's party, an outcome which would trigger a hung parliament.

The Conservatives need a huge swing of 6.9 percent to secure victory -- equivalent to the landslide which swept Labour led by Blair to power in 1997.

Uphill task for Labour

Labour currently has 345 seats in the House of Commons, a working majority of 56, compared to the Conservatives' 193.

If there is a hung parliament for the first time since 1974, the Liberal Democrats could play a key role in a minority or coalition government.

One highlight of the campaign is likely to be the first-ever televised debates between Brown, Cameron and Clegg. They will go head-to-head in three live shows on April 15, 22 and 29.

Brown meanwhile cancelled plans to attend a nuclear security summit in the US next week as he would be campaigning, a spokesman for his office said, adding Foreign Secretary David Miliband would go in his place.