BLACKPOOL, England -- British Prime Minister John Major put his Conservative party on an election footing Friday, promising to win a fifth term of office on a traditional platform of low taxes and law and order.


In the closing address to the ruling party's annual conference, Major urged his supporters and the country to keep faith with the free-market values that he said had transformed Britain during 16 years of Conservative government.


Although the Conservatives trail the main opposition Labour party by 30 percentage points, Major said the party was poised to recover now that he had crushed speculation over his leadership.


"Today we meet united, healed, renewed -- and thirsting for the real fight: with Labour," said Major, who beat right-wing ex-cabinet minister John Redwood in a July leadership ballot.


"All elections are important, but the next is a watershed ... Beat Labour one more time, and we've beaten socialism for good," the prime minister, who must hold the next general election by May 1997, said.


The overarching idea of Major's speech was the need to reinvigorate Conservatism for the 21st century through a set of policies that would equip Britain to meet the growing economic challenge of the United States and Asia.


Proclaiming the need to become the unrivaled "enterprise center of Europe," he promised to reduce the share of national wealth spent by the state and cut taxes as soon as is prudent.


"High spending and high taxes are no longer an option," Major said, renewing his ambition to lower not just income tax but also inheritance and capital gains tax.


At the end of a week in which tensions over Europe have resurfaced, Major affirmed his opposition to a federal superstate without resorting to the stridently nationalist language used earlier in the conference by Defense Secretary Michael Portillo.


He said that he was for Europe, not against it, but that Britain would stand its corner if its European Union allies pressed on down the road to what he called a federal Europe. "Federalism wouldn't work for us. Our partners must understand that it's politically and constitutionally unacceptable," he said. "If others go federalist, Conservative Britain will not."