Brown set to meet fighter pilots

The Prime Minister is to visit a base in Abu Dhabi where cutting edge Typhoon fighter planes have been deployed with the RAF.

Mr Brown has spent most of his four-day stint in the Gulf exhorting leaders to engage with moves to rescue and reform the global economy.

He believes states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar will now agree to up their contributions to the IMF in return for greater influence on international bodies.

There have been fears that the fund's current reserves of 250 billion dollars (£158,000) may not be enough to bail out economies hit by the global downturn, while oil-rich countries are sitting on an estimated one trillion dollar windfall in the wake of the oil price spike.

However, no formal announcements are expected before leaders gather in Washington on November 15 to discuss reforming the world financial system.

In a speech in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Mr Brown reiterated his calls for "dialogue" between oil producers and consumers to ensure the cost of oil is kept stable rather than risking a repeat of recent volatility.

He said people had to move on from a "zero sum gain" approach which assumed those selling and buying oil would oppose each other rather than co-operate.

He also insisted that whoever won the US presidential election must offer more leadership and avoid resorting to protectionism if the world economy was to bounce back from financial turmoil.