UK’s Brown seeks U.S. support for Darfur plan

July 29, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — Britain’s new leader Gordon Brown will seek support for a peace package for Sudan’s Darfur region in his first talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday, but the Iraq conflict will hang heavy over their meeting.

The British prime minister arrived at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat, on Sunday and was due to hold a first session of talks with Bush over dinner.

As Brown got off the helicopter, he was greeted by a color guard and Bush shook his hand.

“It’s a great pleasure to be here at Camp David because there’s so much history associated with it,” Brown said.

Aides to Brown say he wants to focus on ending the Darfur conflict and breaking a deadlock in global trade liberalization talks in his first face-to-face meeting with Bush since he succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister last month.

Brown, with the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is proposing a package of measures to try to end the conflict in Darfur.

It includes a United Nations Security Council resolution for an African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force, an immediate cease-fire, restarting a peace process and an economic aid package for Darfur, a British government source said.

It would also hold out the threat of sanctions against the Sudanese government if it failed to cooperate.

(Reuters)