The Tory leader has told Ken Clarke he thinks he is too old to take his job.

Former chancellor Clarke, 64, said on Saturday he would not rule out a run for the Conservative top job when Michael Howard steps down this year.

But Howard, who is 63 and retiring on grounds of his age, said on Sunday that with the next general election not likely to be until 2009 or 2010 the party needed a younger chief.

"If you look ahead to the next election, it is going to be in four or five years' time, I will be 67 or 68, and I think that is too old to lead a party from opposition into government," he told the BBC.

"Ken may prove me wrong. Ken is a formidable politician, as are many of the other possible contenders and Ken may prove me wrong. But that is what I thought."

On Saturday Clarke had said: "I have not heard Michael Howard express an opinion about my age. My view is you're as old as you feel."

The heavy-hitting Clarke stood for the leadership unsuccessfully in 1997 and 2001 and could be helped by a proposed change in the rules to return the final decision to the parliamentary Conservative party.

However as well as his age his staunchly pro-European views could count against him.