PM to meet Bush over world crisis

Sep 25 2008

Gordon Brown and US President George Bush are to discuss how to tackle the worsening global financial crisis in a surprise meeting in Washington.

The Prime Minister warned that the turmoil in American banking had consequences for every British family.

The trip to the White House on Friday is a last-minute addition to the Prime Minister's itinerary on his current visit to the United Nations in New York.

It comes as Mr Bush has been desperately trying to persuade Congress to back a 700 billion US dollar bailout of struggling American banks, warning that the economy would otherwise be in serious trouble.

Mr Brown has thrown his weight behind the scheme.

Speaking outside the UN headquarters, where he has been attending an emergency poverty summit, Mr Brown said: "While the problem comes out of America it has consequences for all of us and every family will want to know that we are doing everything in our power to ensure that there is stability.

"And that is stability for people's jobs, for people's mortgages, for people's standards of living. That is why I want to meet President Bush."

Beside the poverty summit, the Prime Minister has been using his New York visit to speak to a host of world leaders and senior Wall Street asset fund managers about the economic situation.

He is trying to piece together support for long-term reforms to global financial systems, including worldwide co-operation among national regulators.

He also wants greater transparency in transactions, more responsibility on board members for risks taken by their institutions and a shake-up of bonus schemes that promote short-term speculative deals.