Brown loses opinion poll momentum

[UK poll]

* Brown found his momentum slip in a ComRes poll

* The two point lead would be enough to give Cameron's party a majority

UK: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent improvement in opinion polls ahead of this year's election suffered a reversal on Sunday when his Labour Party was shown to have lost ground to the main opposition Conservatives.

Brown, who had reduced the Tory lead to single figures in recent months, found his momentum slip in a ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

The Conservatives were on 40 percent, up two points on two weeks ago, Labour were on 29 percent, down two points, and the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third main political party, were on 21 percent, up two points. The 11 point lead would be enough to give David Cameron's party a majority if replicated in an election, due by June, dispelling fears in the financial markets of a hung parliament.

Cameron, whose party has been out of power since 1997, made a direct appeal to Labour voters on Saturday, calling on them to vote Tory, even if they had not done so before.

In his Internet web blog, he said the Conservatives would deliver a fairer Britain, saying Labour had failed.

"The hopes you had with Labour - that Britain would become a stronger, fairer society - those hopes don't just die just because Labour haven't achieved them," he said.

"They're alive with us in the modern Conservative party."

On Sunday a television interview with Brown will be broadcast, in which he speaks about the death of his infant daughter and his hopes for his son who suffers from cystic fibrosis.

Political commentators said the pre-recorded interview was a significant change for the 58-year-old Brown, often portrayed as buttoned-up and more comfortable reeling off economic statistics than talking about his emotions.

London, Sunday, Reuters