Conservatives rule out more first year cuts - report

The Conservatives, leading Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party in the polls, said he would announce no new cuts to existing budgets for the year in an emergency budget that could be held within 50 days of any election victory.

Speaking to the Guardian, Osborne said he would cut 6 billion pounds through public sector efficiency savings and 500 million pounds from changes to child trust funds and tax credits for higher earners.

The Conservatives announced earlier this week they had identified 12 billion pounds in savings but would not implement them in full to protect some public services. Six billion pounds of the cuts would help to fund an exemption for most Britons from a planned Labour payroll tax rise, Osborne said.

With Britain facing a record budget deficit, the argument over when to cut public spending and by how much has been one of the main election issues.

The centre-right Conservatives want to cut the deficit more deeply and quickly than Labour. Brown warns that that could jeopardise the recovery and lead to job losses.

"It would be such a dereliction of our duty to the British people and a betrayal of our electoral mandate not to do anything about the deficit in our first year," Osborne told the Guardian, a Labour-supporting daily newspaper.

The efficiency savings would come from measures such as renegotiating deals with suppliers and keeping a tighter control on recruitment in government departments, the Conservatives say.

Osborne has said action is needed in 2010-11 to cut borrowing because ratings agencies and investors are concerned about debt levels.

Centre-left Labour, in power since 1997, say voters should not trust the Conservatives to rebuild the economy.