LONDON. Feb 1: The prime minister and the leader of the opposition joined Saturday to back England's bid for the 2006 World Cup finals and to condemn pressure on the nation to withdraw its bid in favour of Germany, reports AP.

UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, notified England's Football Association that it was backing the German bid.

The government is 100 per cent behind the FA's bid," Prime Minister John Major said Saturday.

Tony Blair, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said his party's commitment tp England's World Cup bid would be included in its manifesto for the national election, which must be held by May.

This news will simply serve to strengthen the determination of the Labour government, if elected, to support the FA bid." Blair said

Africa and South America have both put up their own candidates, and UEFA was swayed by arguments that two European bids would be self-defeating.

FA chief executive Graham Kelly said his dispute was with UEFA, not Germany

"We will both have strong bids to put forward and we would want their bid and our bid to be considered fairly, openly, transparently in the democratic way these things should be considered." Kelly said Saturday

"We don't relish a -xtuation of this sort but we cannot sit back and allow this to happen to English football."

Kelly released copies of a fax from Gerhard Aigner. UEFA's general secretary saying the issue was discussed by the executive committee Wednesday in Lisbon