Leeds continued their climb back up the Premier League as they started 2003 in the winning style they ended 2002.

Goals either side of the interval from Eirik Bakke and Mark Viduka means Leeds have now taken 13 points from their last five games, winning three in succession for the first time in nine months.

It was sweet revenge for Leeds following a 2-1 defeat at St Andrews at the end of August, and made for an unhappy belated birthday for Blues boss Steve Bruce who turned 42 yesterday.

To compound Bruce's problems - his side have now won just one of their last seven games - Michael Johnson and Martin Grainger have joined the club's lengthening injury list.

No wonder Bruce is eager to dip into the market this month following the re-opening of the transfer window today, with France international striker Christophe Dugarry apparently his principal target.

Birmingham are also sliding back towards the relegation zone, yet Bruce can have no complaints with the competitive nature and spirit of his side. However goals are in short supply and Dugarry could be the answer.

Leeds boss Terry Venables, like Bruce eager to add to the squad yet aware there may need to be sales to ease debts, now finds himself in the enviable position of pondering just when any new signings would be introduced to the side.

The players in possession of the shirts are all playing with the kind of confidence which comes from an unbeaten five-game run, which is why Leeds started this game with menace and purpose.

After Jason Wilcox had flashed a 20-yard left-foot drive inches wide of the left-hand post of Nico Vaesen after just 47 seconds, Leeds then forged ahead five minutes later.

The goal came at a time with Birmingham down to 10 men as striker Clinton Morrison was waiting to come on after receiving treatment for an ankle knock moments earlier in a challenge with Danny Mills.

United were also perhaps fortunate not to have conceded a penalty a minute earlier when Ian Harte, in at left back in the absence of the injured Teddy Lucic, appeared to chop down Paul Devlin just inside the box, but referee Phil Dowd was unimpressed.

From that, and with Morrison on the sidelines looking on, Leeds skipper Gary Kelly swung over a deep far-post cross from the right which Mark Viduka knocked back into the six-yard box for Bakke to head home his first Premiership goal of the season.

At that stage Leeds were knocking the ball around crisply, with a depleted Birmingham clearly knocked out of their stride.

But City slowly doused Leeds' attacking fire with a 13th-minute shot out of the blue, Damien Johnson forcing Paul Robinson into a tip-over save from an 18-yard curler,

Leeds should have taken a 2-0 lead midway through the half. A Bakke backheel down the left wing picked out Harry Kewell for a first-time cross.

But despite pulling clear of his marker and with an open goal at his mercy, Viduka steered his header wide of the target.

Birmingham, though, were proving dangerous and spurned two chances to pull level a minute later as Morrison initially fired in a drive which was beaten away at point-blank range by Robinson.

The ball then spun into the path of Damien Johnson, but his follow-up shot was weak and Kelly cleared off the line with ease.

On the half-hour mark, and with Leeds under pressure again, it was Kewell who hacked away from his own line as Jonathan Hutchinson stabbed a corner goalwards, the ball bouncing around the Leeds box.

After Kewell had fired a long-range drive wide and Bakke had drilled a 30-yarder into the midriff of Vaesen, Robinson then bravely saved at the feet of Damien Johnson, the keeper taking an accidental boot in his face for his troubles.

Robinson, though, was barely troubled after the break. Instead it was Leeds who managed to reignite their earlier passion.

Vaesen first saved from Kewell and then Bakke before being beaten again in the 67th minute as a delightful chipped Kelly cross to the far post picked out Viduka to head home his sixth goal of the season - but his first since November 10.

Either side of that Dowd ignored further Blues penalty appeals for challenges from Danny Mills on Morrison and Jonathan Woodgate on Aliou Cisse, either of which could have made a difference.

Instead, Leeds kept a second successive clean sheet as their search for a happier new year than the last 12 months began with aplomb.

Teams

Leeds: Robinson, Kelly, Woodgate, Mills, Harte, Smith, Bakke (Milner 73), Okon, Wilcox, Viduka, Kewell.

Subs Not Used: Martyn, Seth Johnson, Duberry, Fowler.

Booked: Smith.

Goals: Bakke 6, Viduka 67.

Birmingham: Vaesen, Kenna, Michael Johnson (Horsfield 63), Hutchinson, Grainger (Powell 70), Devlin, Cisse, Savage, Damien Johnson, Kirovski, Morrison.

Subs Not Used: Bennett, Hughes, Woodhouse.

Booked: Savage, Grainger.

Att: 40,034

Ref: P Dowd (Staffordshire).