Cherie and Powell 'fuming at Campbell's indiscretions'

The Prime Minister's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, and his foreign affairs supremo Sir Nigel Sheinwald are understood to believe Mr Campbell has reneged on a deal not to rush into print soon after Tony Blair quits next month.

His memoirs, The Blair Years, are due to appear on July 9 - two weeks after Mr Blair is due to leave office.

Mrs Blair is said to have read the original version of the book, submitted to the Cabinet Office because the Premier was too busy.

The Guardian newspaper claimed that she was angered by alleged breaches of her family's privacy. "If he had wanted to quote children, why not quote his own," it reported her as saying.

Some in Whitehall suspected Mr Campbell of quietly stoking the controversy over his book himself in order to increase sales.

But the Daily Mail has been told that senior staff were indeed dismayed at the book, particularly as it will preempt the Prime Minister's own account of his time in Downing Street by several months.

They believe any "tell-all" memoirs should be left until Labour is no longer in government - not just because it could be damaging to Gordon Brown but also because Mr Blair's staff should be "dignified" about cashing in.

When senior figures saw excerpts, there was pressure from all sides for Mr Campbell to tone down his account because of the sensitive nature of some of his proposed text.

Mr Campbell is believed to have agreed to some deletions.

A senior Downing Street source said: "Why should Alastair be jumping the gun when he effectively left four years ago?

"Why should he be milking it when it was agreed there would be a dignified distance between Tony's departure and what will be grubby revelations in the Press?

"This will be a highly-selective diary of self-justification and self-importance and will not be an accurate reflection of Tony's premiership."

Mr Brown, whose legendary rows with Mr Blair are said to have been "trimmed", would also prefer to avoid the distraction of the publication of the book during his first few weeks in power.

However, an alternative September date would have overshadowed Mr Brown's first Labour party conference as leader.

Mr Campbell, the former spin doctor, has decided against picking up an estimated £400,000 in newspaper serialisation rights.

The memoirs cover from 1994 - when Mr Campbell first went to work for the then Leader of the Opposition - until 2003, when he resigned after he became the focus of controversy in the battle over Iraqi weapons intelligence with the BBC.

It was revealed at the weekend that some of Mr Blair's four-letter expletives had been cut from the book.

A Downing Street spokesman said discussions over the content of Mr Campbell's book had been "very cooperative throughout".

Mr Campbell did not respond to requests for comment.