No change to US alliance - Miliband

After one of his junior ministers predicted Britain would no longer be "joined at the hip" with the US, Mr Miliband insisted America remained the UK's single most important ally.

Lord Malloch Brown, who was appointed to the Foreign Office earlier this month, suggested that Mr Brown would not have the same bond with President George Bush that Tony Blair did.

His comments followed a speech by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander in Washington, which was seen as a sign that relations with the US would change under Mr Brown.

But Mr Miliband said there would be no change in Britain's "vital" alliance with the US.

"With a new Brown government some people are looking for evidence that our alliance is breaking up," he told the News of the World.

"There isn't any, and there won't be any. Nothing has changed. Our single most important bilateral partner is the USA."

One of the central points of Mr Alexander's speech was that a country's strength should no longer be measured by "what they could destroy".

But Mr Miliband said: "In the real world, the US is the richest country, it has the most powerful military forces, and it is driven forward by optimism and by entrepreneurship - values the world needs. In the real world we are stronger together than apart."

His efforts to reassure Washington of Mr Brown's commitment to the so-called special relationship come as the Prime Minister prepares to hold talks with Mr Bush at the White House in the next few weeks.