Brown to urge credit crunch action on U.S. trip

|PIC1|Plagued by crumbling popularity and slumping house prices at home, 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.

The election stalemate in Zimbabwe and violence in Darfur will also be discussed, officials said before his trip.

With the 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 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 meeting with top Wall Street names in New York on Wednesday, 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 to consumers, exacerbating housing market problems.

WHITE HOUSE DINNER

Brown will meet Bush in Washington on Thursday. "The key priority will be the economy," said an 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 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 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.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Brown called for greater cooperation between Britain and the United States in educational and business exchanges and in research into diseases and low-carbon technologies.

He also called for closer transatlantic cooperation between charities and proposed U.S. and British groups work together to teach English around the world.

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 Bush and his wife Laura.

The officials said Brown hoped to meet presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain on Thursday.

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.