Brown sets out post-Bush foreign policy

|PIC1|The United States should take the lead in driving closer global cooperation, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday in a speech that looked beyond the George W. Bush presidency.

On the last leg of his three-day U.S. tour, overshadowed at home by economic woes that voters increasingly believe Brown cannot tackle, the prime minister set out a vision of foreign policy that embraced closer ties between Europe and America and also the emerging economies.

"Now is an opportunity for a historic effort in cooperation, a new dawn in collaborative action between America and Europe," he said in a speech in Boston.

Of efforts to forge better ties, Brown said, "America's leadership is, and will be, indispensable."

The speech seemed to look toward the new White House administration that will be ushered in when the Republican president leaves office in January 2009.

That new focus was evident when Brown met the three main candidates for the November presidential election - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain - before Bush in Washington on Thursday.

Brown said he wants to see reform of the international institutions to reflect the new world order. His argument is that global problems need global solutions as shown by the credit crunch that has seized financial markets.

"I also sense this is also the moment to bring in China, India, South Africa, Brazil and other emerging countries to the heart of the debate," he added.

PROBLEMS AT HOME

Brown's message on foreign policy risked being drowned out by problems at home as discontent from within his own party has raised speculation that he may face a contest for the leadership if his poll ratings continue to slump.

Worried about their own future, many Labour lawmakers are unhappy with Brown's decision last year to abolish a 10 percent tax rate band, which helped lower earners, to fund a cut in the main tax rate to 20 percent from 22 percent.

The prime minister was forced on Thursday to interrupt his trip to speak to a junior member of his government to persuade her not to quit.

Three more ministerial aides were reported to have voiced concerns about the abolition of the 10 percent rate on Friday.

Brown remains defiant for now. He said on Thursday that people who had lost out because of the band being scrapped were compensated by other allowances and people would eventually come round to the idea he was doing the right thing for the economy.

The economy, however, is no longer the former finance minister's trump card - it is slowing and Britons are becoming increasingly worried about the prospect of a housing market crash as mortgage lending dries up in the face of a global credit crunch.

Brown called in senior bank executives this week to discuss the drying up of funds in credit markets and a new plan to kick-start lending is expected next week.

This still may not be enough to prevent his ruling Labour Party taking a pounding in local elections on May 1. The party also faces a by-election in a parliamentary seat after the death of one member of parliament on Thursday.

Brown is counting on the economy picking up next year in time for a national election that must take place by 2010.