Brown seeks 'new deal' with Obama

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Gordon Brown has vowed to forge a "global new deal" with Barack Obama when he meets the new US president for talks in Washington this week.

Writing in the Sunday Times, the prime minister said any challenge could be "overcome by America, Britain and the world working together".

Mr Brown will become the first European leader to meet President Obama since he took office.

He is also set to address both houses of Congress during his visit.

Before his US trip, the prime minister is due to join other European Union leaders at an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Sunday.

Atlanticist

In the Sunday Times, Mr Brown said the historic "partnership of purpose" between Britain and the US should be directed at fighting the economic downturn as well as terrorism, poverty and disease.

He said the impact of the new deal "can stretch from the villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London and New York - and giving security to the hard-working families in every country".

Britain and America may be separated by the thousands of miles of the Atlantic, but we are united by shared values that can never be broken Gordon Brown <a class="" href="/1/hi/world/7903907.stm">Brown and Obama to meet in March</a>

It would require all continents to make cash injections to boost economies, all countries to adopt green policies, universal banking reforms and changes to international bodies, he suggested.

Mr Brown stressed his fondness for America ahead of the visit.

"I have always been an Atlanticist and a great admirer of the American spirit of enterprise and national purpose," he said.

"I have visited America many times and have many friends there, and as prime minister I want to do more to strengthen even further our relationship with America."

Mr Brown will follow in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair in addressing both the Senate and House of Representatives.

"Winston Churchill described the joint inheritance of Britain and America as not just a shared history but a shared belief in the great principles of freedom and the rights of man," he said.

"Britain and America may be separated by the thousands of miles of the Atlantic, but we are united by shared values that can never be broken.

"And as America stands at its own dawn of hope, I want that hope to be fulfilled through us all coming together to shape the 21st century as the first century of a truly global society."