Gordon Brown to Address Both Houses of Us Congress

Gordon Brown will deliver an address to both Houses of Congress when he visits Washington next week, it was announced today.

The invitation represents a considerable coup for Brown, who will become only the fifth British prime minister to deliver a speech to a joint sitting of both Houses of the US legislature.

The speech almost certain to focus on the global financial crisis ? will bolster his claim to be a world leader in economic affairs.

The prime minister has repeatedly made the point that the bank recapitalization program he launched in the autumn has been copied by other countries, and has suggested that the G20 summit ? which he is hosting in London in April ? could lead to significant reform of the global financial system.

Even before the invitation was announced, Brown had already achieved acts of diplomatic oneupmanship.

He became the first European leader to speak to Barack Obama after his inauguration as the US president and the first to secure an invitation to Washington for face to face talks with him.

The other British prime ministers to have addressed both Houses of Congress were Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

Downing Street confirmed that Brown would be delivering the address after the news was released by US sources.

Blair delivered his address shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.

He received a raptuous reception because of Britain's support for the US-led invasion, but the announcement of the death of David Kelly, made on the following day, plunged him into one of the biggest crises of his premiership.