Mr Brown has called for global co-ordination of financial regulation
|
Gordon Brown is due in New York later on Wednesday to hold talks with Wall Street financiers and regulators about tackling the global financial crisis.
Urgent measures are needed to rebuild confidence in the global banking system, the prime minister has said.
However, it has emerged that Mr Brown is very unlikely to meet US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in person.
Mr Brown has told critics in his own party that he is the right man to handle the financial turmoil.
Tackling turbulence
Before leaving for the US, Mr Brown said he intended to shrug off leadership mutterings and get on with the "real task" of steering Britain through economic turbulence.
He said Labour had to show people it was doing "what is right for the country" and he intended to do so.
Mr Brown hopes his US trip will help him build on the momentum generated by his crucial speech in Manchester where he described himself as a "serious man for serious times".
After meetings on Wall Street on Wednesday, Mr Brown and other world leaders, including President George W. Bush, will take part in a debate on tackling global poverty at the UN.
But Mr Brown is unlikely to be meeting Mr Paulson, the man spearheading government efforts to rescue the US banking system.
The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington said Downing Street had hoped for a face-to-face meeting but that seemed unlikely as Mr Paulson was unable to travel to New York.
Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said he could not "believe that Gordon Brown is flying all the way to the US and not meeting the man at the centre of resolving that crisis".
Asked if he had done enough to silence recent criticism, Mr Brown told the BBC before he left Manchester that at times of economic difficulties: "The political system is full of rumours about who should be moving on - that's life.
"Difficult times, and I have known difficult times, make me more resolved to do the right thing. The right thing is to forget about the ins and outs of everyday politics and get on with the real task."
That he said was to "help people through these difficult times" before going on to create a "fairer" country.
|
One-Minute World News
E-mail this to a friend
Printable version
BBC News
Bookmark with:
What are these?