Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Bank of England (BoE) Governor Mervyn King's economic record, but would not comment on whether the embattled central bank chief's term would be renewed next year.

King has come under fire for his role in the handling of the Northern Rock crisis, in which Britain's fifth-biggest mortgage lender suffered a run on its deposits after it became known it had sought emergency funding from the BoE.

Asked in an interview with BBC television, at the start of the Labour Party's annual conference in the seaside resort of Bournemouth, whether King was to blame, Brown said: 'King has been a brilliant governor of the BoE.'

He said the record of the BoE has been very good with the economy growing continuously for the last decade, during which both King and his predecessor Eddie George at the helm of the central bank.

But Brown did not comment on whether King would be reappointed for another five-year term in 2008.

He denied the authorities had not acted quickly enough over Northern Rock, which had fallen foul of the credit crunch seizing global financial markets.

Blame has also been apportioned to Britain's 'tripartite' regulatory system, first set up by Brown when he was finance minister in 1997.

Under the current system, the Financial Services Authority supervises the banks, the Treasury is responsible for legislation and the Bank of England for financial stability.

'Of course we have to look at the tripartite system, we can look at how this can flourish in the future,' Brown said. Reuters