Tony Blair has signalled his determination to stay in office until the summer as he sought to maintain the Government's momentum during his final months in No 10.
The Prime Minister indicated that he expected to attend a meeting of EU heads in late June - just three months before he has promised to be gone.
His comments came at his first monthly Downing Street press conference of 2007, where he acknowledged that voters were getting bored with Labour after 10 years in power.
But Mr Blair stressed that his diary was brimming with initiatives in the months ahead, apparently scotching the prospect of a surprise early exit from Downing Street.
The Premier pledged last year to have quit before this September's Trade Union Congress and observers have begun to expect an announcement around the Scottish, Welsh and local elections on May 3.
Asked whether he would be at a summit of European Union heads of government in Brussels on June 21-22, he responded without hesitation: "Of course."
The Prime Minister admitted that the Government needed to revive its sense of leadership and energy. And he agreed with the analysis of key Cabinet ally David Miliband that Labour would have to "defy political gravity" to win a fourth General Election.
But, while conceding that "all the emphasis is on the negative" at the moment, Mr Blair insisted the Government had to hold its nerve and stick with his New Labour agenda.
"I believe, provided we hold our nerve on the reform and change programme, provided we go to new New Labour, if you like, and don't in any sense retreat from New Labour, we will come through this and come through it with the renewed sense of leadership and energy and drive that we need."
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He went on to say that the opposition parties were not troubling him with any "great critique" of the Government and suggested that voters' "boredom" was not a cause for concern. If the worst that you have to put up with is boredom in a mid-term you are probably doing reasonably well," he said.
