David Cameron has called on the Conservatives to become "a party of the cities as well as the countryside and suburbs".

Speaking at a community project in Birmingham on Sunday, the Tory leadership contender was seeking to show he could win votes for the party in urban areas.

Right-wing rival David Davis has said he is the only candidate who can win seats for the Conservatives outside of traditional strongholds such as the shires and South East of England.

The council estate-raised shadow home secretary and Yorkshire MP is hoping the argument will help haul him back into the race.

But Cameron, the Eton educated MP for affluent Witney in Oxfordshire, was hoping to counter the claim and cement his place as the frontrunner in the contest as it enters its crucial stages.

"Conservative revival will only take place if we show how much Conservative values are the right way to deliver a real urban revival," he said.

"Modern compassionate Conservatism means recognising that we are all in this together and have a shared responsibility to deal with these problems."

The 39-year-old Cameron is trading on his youthful charisma and modernising agenda.

Over the weekend he won the backing of former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine, who said he had an "elusive quality that encapsulates people".

Meanwhile Davis was concentrating his efforts on preparing a blitz of activity as ballot papers begin to go out to the party's 300,000 members.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday he acknowledged that he has a "mountain to climb" as most votes will be case in the first two to three weeks of the six-week postal ballot period.

He will launch his campaign for members' votes in London on Tuesday when he will hope to show that he is more than a "tough guy from the backstreets".

But in an apparent reference to Cameron, he added: "The next general election is not going to be won on the basis of show business but whether people think the leader of the Conservative Party can solve people's problems."

However the scale of his task was outlined in an Independent on Sunday survey showing that 38 of 54 Tory constituency party officials favoured Cameron.

Nine were undecided while just seven supported Davis.