By IRNA,
London : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday started a three-day visit to the US, during which he was due to hold talks with the three front-runners to replace President George W Bush, who steps down next January.
His meeting with Bush on Thursday is again expected to be dominated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan amid reports that some members of the US administration have been irritated by the dramatic reduction in British troops in Basra.
In an interview with CBS ahead of his trip, Brown said that there would be no hasty reduction of British troops after the recent violence in Basra despite his previous plan to reduce the current number by 1,500 to only 2,500 by this spring.
The visit to the US is the second by the prime minister since replacing Tony Blair last June and Brown cast himself like his predecessor as a bridge to bring Europe and America closer together.
“That will be to the advantage of all of us, to deal with economic problems, climate change and help make for a more peaceful world in the future,” Brown said.
He also praised all three presidential candidates, who he was due to meet, including Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama for the first time, saying it was “an accident” that they had yet to meet.
His visit was starting in New York where he was holding talks on Wall Street before taking part in a debate on Africa at the UN Security Council.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Brown has proposed new means of UK-US co-operation on universities, enterprise, science, climate change and charities.
“Each of these initiatives offers a modern means of expressing our special relationship in the 21st century – bringing people together, increasing understanding and realising the potential for the greater good when our two nations work together,” he said.
After meeting Bush, the British prime minister was due to make a speech on foreign policy in Boston on Friday before returning back home.