Brown urges credit crunch action on US trip

Plagued by crumbling popularity and slumping house prices at home, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Wall Street bankers on Wednesday to urge them to come clean on 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, Mr Brown was due to meet President George W. Bush yesterday and Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke today for their take on the market turmoil. But with the British economy slowing and his poll ratings dropping at the sharpest rate for any leader since before World War II, Mr Brown is anxious to show he is in control of the economy he ran as finance minister in a decade of prosperity.

"This is a testing time," Mr Brown said. "It is probably a testing week with all the results coming out."

Many are speculating that Mr Brown could soon face a challenger for the leadership, particularly if his ruling Labour Party suffers huge losses, as expected, in local elections on May 1.

His Finance Minister and close ally Alistair Darling said in a news agency interview in China on Wednesday that the government needed a new focus.

Mr Brown has remained defiant in the face of calls that people are losing confidence in him. He has said it is understandable that people are worried about their own well-being but he will make the economy his "sole focus."

To this end, he met senior bankers in London on Tuesday 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 US real estate prices. The consensus at the meeting was that markets needed more liquidity and Mr Brown said on Wednesday the government was considering a range of options with the Bank of England to get frozen mortgage markets working again.

"We are determined to do everything in our power," he told reporters, adding that he was about to have a similar meeting with Wall Street bankers to get their views on what was needed to end the market turmoil and urge them to report their losses as a result of investment in US mortgage debt quickly.