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UK's Brown to urge credit crunch action on U.S. trip
By Sumeet Desai
LONDON (Reuters) - Plagued by crumbling popularity and slumping house prices at home, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will tell Wall Street bankers on Wednesday to reveal their losses quickly to help end a global credit crunch.
On a three-day tour of the United States, which is already teetering on the edge of recession, Brown will also meet President George W. Bush on Thursday and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke on Friday for their take on the market turmoil.
He kicks off the trip on Wednesday at the United Nations with breakfast with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, followed by a Security Council session on how to fund peacekeeping in Africa and put in place adequate post-conflict reconstruction there.
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The election stalemate in Zimbabwe and violence in Darfur will also come up, British officials said before his trip.
With the British economy slowing and his poll ratings dropping at the sharpest rate for any leader since World War Two, Brown is anxious to show he is in control of the economy he managed as finance minister during a decade of prosperity.
On Tuesday, he met with senior bankers in London to discuss what steps might be taken to help end the credit crunch that has raged for eight months because of financial institutions' exposure to plunging U.S. real estate prices.
Brown will have a similar get-together with top Wall Street names in New York on Wednesday, British officials said. He wants banks to disclose their losses quickly so they resume lending to each other and bring down borrowing costs for consumers.
The Bank of England has cut interest rates three times since last December but the government is worried the reduction is not being passed on to consumers, exacerbating housing market problems at a time when the government is already on the ropes.
In a television interview on Monday, Brown said the main challenge for the British economy was to avoid a U.S.-style slump and vowed to do everything he could to keep things on an even keel.
WHITE HOUSE DINNER
Brown will then fly to Washington in time to meet on Bush on Thursday. "The key priority will be the economy," said a British official. "The prime minister and president will want to discuss the global economy ahead of the G8."
The G8 -- made up of seven leading industrial economies and Russia -- holds a summit in Japan from July 7 to 9.
Action to bring down rocketing oil and food prices which are feeding inflation in the rich world and sparking riots in developing nations will also feature high on the agenda.
The two men are also expected to talk about reaching a global trade deal. "We are close to an agreement but it will take the leaders to push it through," said another UK official.
The situation in Afghanistan was discussed at length by the two leaders when they met at last week's NATO summit, but is sure to come up again, as will Iraq, the officials said.
While last year's Washington meeting between the two men -- when Brown had only just taken over from Tony Blair -- was more formal, the prime minister will be accompanied by his wife Sarah this time for dinner with George and Laura Bush.
The officials said Brown hoped to meet presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain on Thursday to talk about bilateral relations.
Brown is also scheduled to meet New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday and will fly to Boston on Friday for a speech on reforming international institutions.
