Cameron carries debate

Polls pegged Conservative leader David Cameron as the winner of Britain's final televised debate on Thursday night in Birmingham, a week ahead of the May 6 election.

At 37 percent, Cameron was seen as the clear winner in an average of five instant surveys taken after Thursday's showdown. Prime Minister Gordon Brown trailed Cameron by more than 10 percent with just 25.6 percent support. Nick Clegg, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, came second with 32 percent.

The final debate, with its focus on the economy and Britain's slow growth, was expected to play to Brown's strengths. The former finance minister is struggling to right his campaign after weeks of sinking opinion polls and an embarrassing gaffe on Wednesday when he was overheard calling a Labour-voting retiree a "bigoted woman" after she challenged him on immigration.

"There's a lot to this job and as you saw yesterday I don't get all of it right," said Brown. "But I do know how to run the economy in good times and in bad. When the banks collapsed I took immediate action to stop the crisis becoming a calamity and the recession becoming a depression."

Brown warned that the Conservative's plan to cut a record budget deficit of more than 11 percent of GDP risked dragging the country back into recession.

Cameron countered with repeated attacks on Brown's economic record, saying the Conservatives offered a fresh start after 13 years of Labour rule.

"This prime minister and this government have left our economy in such a mess with a budget deficit that this year is forecast to be bigger than that of Greece," he said.

"If you vote Conservative on Thursday, you can have a new fresh government making a clean break and taking our country in a new direction and bringing the change that we need."

Vote too close to call

Political analysts believe the vote will be close and will likely produce a hung parliament. Brown highlighted the danger of a coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

"I don't like having to do this, but I have got to tell you that things are too important to be left to risky policies under these two people," he said. "They are not ready for government, because they have not thought through their policies."

In his closing statement, Clegg told viewers not to return to the same old two-party system.

"When you go to vote next week, choose the future you really want. Together we will really change Britain," he said.

cmk/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Rob Turner