There was also a pledge not to extend value added tax (VAT), which is a national sales tax, to food, children's clothes, books, newspapers and transport. However, there was no pledge not to increase VAT. "We have made no pledge on the VAT rate," said Brown.

Foreigners who work for public services will have to be able to speak English, the manifesto said.

Police reforms would allow badly performing chief constables, who run the police in individual districts throughout the country, to be kicked out if they fail to deliver improvements within three years.

Hospitals would be allowed to take over under-performing ones, and this would also apply to police forces, Brown told the manifesto launch meeting.

Touching on the political scandals that have made politicians and politics unpopular, Brown vowed to allow voters to recall members of parliament if they break the law.

He also pledged to create a democratic House of Lords (the British parliament's second chamber), which still contains some hereditary members, and to allow a vote on introducing voting for 16 year olds, currently the voting threshold is 18.

Other manifesto pledges included:

-- increasing the leave from work for fathers of newly-born babies from two weeks to four weeks;

-- increasing the minimum wage, which currently stands at 5.80 pounds per hour (about 7.70 dollars). However no figure was given for what the wage would be;

-- introducing a green investment bank;

-- building high-speed railways;

-- making Internet broadband available to everybody;

-- creating 1 million more skilled jobs.

A guarantee of a job for everybody over 25 years of age if they have been out of work for two years, and for all those under 25 if they had been unemployed for 10 months.

The leader of Britain's third largest political party, the Liberal Democrats, who could hold the balance of power if the two main parties fail to get a majority of members of parliament at the May 6 general elections, launched a preemptive strike on Labor's manifesto.

Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg, speaking at a press conference in London on Monday morning to launch his party's tax proposals, said: "It is incredibly difficult to believe anything in a Labor manifesto when they have so manifestly failed to deliver on their previous manifestos."

"They promised fairness and new politics in 1997. They promised fairness and new politics in 2001. They promised fairness and new politics in the last election, in 2005. They are doing it again. If they have not managed to do it in 13 years, why on earth would anyone believe that they are going to be able to do it this time?" asked Clegg.

This week is manifesto week in the British general election campaign. On Tuesday, the leading opposition Conservatives launched its manifesto, and on Wednesday it is the turn of the Liberal Democrats.