Mr Barber was speaking ahead of this year's TUC conference in Brighton

He said he hoped Mr Blair would show real "passion and conviction" for workers rights and equality.

Ahead of next week's TUC conference, Mr Barber said Labour must deliver on a series of workplace pledges.

Those affected equality at work, holiday rights and pensions - all hammered out at Labour's national policy forum earlier this year.

The forum, which allows the views of union bosses and Labour Party members to be put directly to ministers, met in July in Warwick and was hailed by union leaders who said they had agreed a "significant shift" from the government.

Engaging with Labour

During a briefing with journalists before unions assemble in Brighton, Mr Barber said it was important that people remained confident a Labour government would deliver on the pledges.

"Tony Blair must demonstrate this doesn't simply represent a kind of pre-election stitch-up - it genuinely represents a commitment to a joint programme of work that's designed to deliver a better deal for the people of Britain at work and that's a key challenge for the prime minister," he said.

Mr Barber indicated that he believed engagement with New Labour remained key to unions retaining influence.

But he warned: "The day we stop being hungry for advance or being passionate about righting wrong will be the day our movement will die because there is still real exploitation faced by many workers in Britain, some real injustices that need to be tackled."

Mr Barber said concern over the potential loss of jobs in the civil service was likely to be a feature in Brighton.

Change for the better?

Despite the cuts and other issues such as the Iraq war, Mr Barber said the TUC was meeting "in a better atmosphere than we have for some years".

"In the run-up to the 1997 election we'd hammered out a common programme: the minimum wage, the commitment to deliver the fairness at work legislation, union recognition, the social chapter and so on," he said.

"We've not had an equivalent understanding running throughout the second term but now as a result of all the work that's been done and which came together very much in the Warwick weekend, we can see an agenda that's been taking shape for the workplace, for the trade union movement to work on together with the government."

Asked if union leaders were granted regular access to ministers he said that issue had "never been a major concern".

"Where there are tensions it's because there's been disagreements about aspects of policy and the lack of that sense of a shared programme... I hope they are now going to change for the better."