Brown flies to Brazil to keep G20 summit on track

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The Prime Minister will hold talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and football legend Pele.

Britain is backing Brazil to join a new G13 group of leading nations, together with India, China, South Africa and Mexico.

As well as seeking support for his proposals to tackle the global recession, Mr Brown will be keen to get Brazil, which is hosting football's 2014 World Cup, to support England's bid for the tournament four years later.

On the third leg of his whistlestop trip, the Prime Minister will also meet business leaders in Brazil before travelling to Chile, having already stopped over in New York and Strasbourg on his 17,500-mile world tour before the London summit on 2 April.

Downing Street sees South American states as key to achieving an agreement at next week's gathering in London that can help revive and reform the global economy.

Mr Brown will be hoping to get his preparations back on track after his visit to New York was marred by fears about the Government's finances and signs of splits between the US and Europe.

The Prime Minister was also forced to play down talk of a rift with the Bank of England after Governor Mervyn King suggested the country may not be able to afford a further fiscal stimulus.

At an event organised by the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Mr Brown insisted they were both committed to doing "whatever was necessary" to revive the economy.

But he also sparked speculation that he was backtracking from more tax cuts and extra spending by emphasising the importance of quantitative easing.

Doubts over the state of the public finances were further heightened when an auction of Government-guaranteed bonds failed for the first time in seven years. The Debt Management Office was selling £1.75 billion of Treasury gilts maturing in 2049, but attracted bids worth just £1.63 billion.

Meanwhile, Czech Prime Minister and EU President Mirek Topolanek lashed out at Mr Brown and President Barack Obama's fiscal stimulus plan and financial bailouts, branding them the "way to hell".

But Mr Brown insisted there was "far more agreement" among world leaders than was being portrayed. Mr Topolanek's spoke soon after his government lost a vote of confidence in the Czech parliament.