BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown yesterday said he felt confident that he had successfully enlisted the help of Gulf states for international plans for an emergency bailout fund, with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia indicating they would offer funds when leaders of the 20 most developed countries meet in Washington in a fortnight.
As Mr Brown arrived in Qatar on the second leg of his whistlestop Gulf tour last night, the Qataris hinted they would contribute money to an International Monetary Fund bailout fund - being billed as a "new Bretton Woods" after the initiative of 1944 - the details of which will be thrashed out in Washington on November 15th.
Prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said: "We are sharing the same world. Qatar is not excluded, so we have to work together."
Speaking after his three-hour private conversation with the king of Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Mr Brown told the BBC: "The Saudis will, I think, contribute so we can have a bigger fund worldwide."
Mr Brown's diplomacy appears to have been in the face of some disquiet among Arab leaders that they are being looked to to provide funds to shore up ailing countries. A senior government source involved in the talks said the Arab states did not want to be cast as the West's "cash cow".
The UK's business secretary Peter Mandelson, travelling with Mr Brown, also appeared to play down expectations of big results from the visit, telling journalists that the trip was a "process, not an event".
Minister Ed Miliband, who was also in Qatar, signed a deal between Qatar and Britain to invest in the development of green technologies. Of the £250 million Low Carbon Innovation Partnership, he announced £100 million was to be provided by the government of Qatar to invest in research into sustainable energy in the UK.
Mr Miliband said: "It will use British expertise in renewable technology, matching it with investment from Qatar and the private sector in Britain. It will help take us another step on the road to a green revolution."
Mr Brown believes the oil-rich countries in the Gulf have profited from the higher oil prices of recent years - something he put at $1 trillion - which he believes puts them in a position to contribute. - ( Guardianservice)