Jean Chrétien served notice yesterday he will let the acrimonious public debate within his party continue unabated as he travels the world over the next month.

He will unshackle Liberal MPs in the interests of lively debate, he said, a departure from the iron fist the Prime Minister has been known to wield when leadership pretenders in the past have too zealously promoted their own agendas.

"It's a lively party. I'm happy," Chrétien said here as he tried to promote Canadian trade half a world away from a Liberal caucus meeting one source said featured "pyrotechnics."

"You always say I control them too much," he told reporters.

Now, the Prime Minister said, it is being suggested he place more control on his feisty caucus.

"No, I'm not going to do that."

Chrétien does not return to Ottawa until Saturday, wrapping up a 12-day trip which featured a trade mission to Russia and Germany and a summit of progressive leaders in Stockholm.

He almost immediately hits the road again for a Commonwealth summit in Australia scheduled for March 2-5, then an international development meeting in Monterrey, Mexico less than three weeks later.

During his absence, he has left new "chief operating officer" John Manley, the deputy prime minister, in charge.

But there are concerns that Chrétien's continued absences from the capital will only embolden those who wish to take their ambitions public.

Chrétien also downplayed suggestions his office played a role in securing the key finance committee chair for London West MP Sue Barnes over Etobicoke North MP Roy Cullen, a supporter of Finance Minister Paul Martin and the expected victor.

"The party is a big party," he said. "There are competitions for posts and we have some powers as a leadership that we use. And it's been like that for 81/2years."

Liberal infighting broke into the open two weeks ago in a dispute over membership rules. Industry Minister Allan Rock accused backers of Martin of restricting access to new members.

In yesterday's closed-door caucus meeting, MPs launched a verbal barrage at Rock over the embarrassing public feud, party sources said. They were angry over statements by Warren Kinsella, a Rock strategist, suggesting Martin supporters had racist motivations when they tried to restrict access to membership.

Rock did not apologize for Kinsella but reportedly said he had no control over the well-known Toronto activist.

The caucus was a raucous affair, with national chair Stan Keyes reportedly tossing socks into the room to illustrate the point the party shouldn't air its "dirty wash" in public.

Earlier on this Team Canada mission, Chrétien denied he'd lost control of his senior cabinet ministers and the government agenda. But he appears much more sanguine about the Rock-Martin battle than in the past, when he warned leadership aspirants that if they didn't concentrate on their cabinet portfolios they wouldn't have one.