Tony Blair's top aide and pugnacious spokesman Alastair Campbell announced his resignation Friday as the British prime minister battled the worst crisis of his six-year rule, triggered by the war in Iraq.

Campbell, 46, had been expected to quit later this year, but the timing of his announcement -- while both he and Blair are enmeshed in a high-stakes inquiry involving whether Britain hyped the case for war -- caught political observers off-guard.

Few had expected Campbell to quit while he and Blair face their toughest test, with big questions hanging over their role in nudging the nation to join Washington in a war few Britons backed.

Campbell's departure robs Blair of his closest confidant and the man widely credited with planning the media strategy that helped Blair's Labor Party regain power after 18 years.

"This idea that the prime minister couldn't cope without me, or without anyone else, is an absolute nonsense. The prime minister is somebody of immense ability," Campbell said in a statement.

The departure comes as Blair struggles to regain voter trust amid plunging popularity ratings and dispel perceptions that style trumps substance.

Thursday, Blair went before the inquiry -- a judicial probe into the suicide of an arms expert -- to answer charges in a BBC report that the government had hyped intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq.

CASUALTY OF IRAQ POLICY?

The inquiry stemmed from a dispute between Campbell and the BBC, and Blair supporters hope Campbell's departure might take the heat off the premier.

But campaigners against the war said Campbell was the first major political casualty of what they termed an illegal and unnecessary conflict.

"The end of his career as Downing Street's spinner-in-chief should not, however, mask the culpability of Tony Blair, who sold the war to the British people on the basis of lies," the Stop the War group said in a statement.

Campbell, who helped orchestrate two Blair election landslides, said he wanted to hand over "in the next few weeks."

Blair's office named his successor as David Hill, a public relations expert and former Labor Party press officer.

Campbell played a key role in drafting a government dossier on Iraq's weaponry which has been scrutinized at the inquiry into last month's suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.

The former journalist sat in on Cabinet meetings and talks with heads of states, wrote many of Blair's speeches and crafted the government "line" on all issues.

Blair said Campbell was "an immensely able, fearless, loyal servant" and that "in the extraordinarily difficult ... world of the modern media, he operated with tremendous skill and dedication."

Bernard Ingham, who held Campbell's high-pressured job under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said it was high time Campbell bowed out.

"He presided over an appalling period in government communication," Ingham told Reuters. "Campbell was obsessed with presentation -- but the real culprit is Mr Blair."

Former Labor minister Gerald Kaufman said there was no smear from the so-called Hutton inquiry on Campbell, even though he was central to media allegations of "sexing up" intelligence.

John Prescott, Blair's official deputy -- even as Campbell was routinely dubbed the "real" deputy prime minister -- said: "Alastair made a tremendous contribution, we wish

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