British Opposition Leader`s Son Dies Aged Six

Cameron has made a priority of defending the state-funded National Health Service, praising it for all the help it had given his elder son.

British opposition leader David Cameron's disabled six-year-old son Ivan died on Wednesday after being taken ill overnight, a Conservative Party spokeswoman said.

Cameron's experience in caring for Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and severe epilepsy, is seen as a factor shaping his "Compassionate Conservatism", helping restore the party as an electoral force after a decade in the political wilderness.

Cameron is tipped to become prime minister in an election to be held by the middle of next year. He and his wife Samantha have two other children, Nancy, 5, and Arthur, 3.

"David and Samantha would ask that their privacy is respected at this terribly difficult time," they said in a statement.

Cameron has made a priority of defending the state-funded National Health Service, praising it for all the help it had given his elder son.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose infant daughter Jennifer Jane died from a brain haemorrhage in 2002, said he and his wife Sarah were very saddened by Ivan's death.

"The death of a child is a loss no parent should have to bear," Brown said.

"I know Ivan was a child who brought joy to all those who knew him and his was a life surrounded by love. The thoughts and prayers of the whole country are with David, Samantha and their family."

Party leaders agreed as a mark of respect to suspend the week's normally fractious Prime Minister's Questions session in Parliament on Wednesday when Brown and Cameron trade barbs.