Brown suggests no US-style bailout for UK banks

LONDON: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested Friday that his country would not offer its banks a US-style bailout.

Brown, who was in Washington for a meeting with US President George W Bush, told British Broadcasting Corp television that the best way of dealing with the British aspect of the global financial crisis was to increase liquidity.

``The American plan is designed for a large number of banks and institutions across America,'' Brown told the BBC. ``We have a smaller banking system I think what we've done is the right thing. We have put cash into the system. That, in Britain, is the better way of deal with it.''

Brown said Britain's central bank, the Bank of England, had made over 100 billion pounds (US$180 billion) available to lenders and that the government was prepared to do more to tackle instability in its financial markets.

Brown said the Bush administration's proposed US$700 billion banking bailout was something ``quite unique.'' ``The American plan is designed for a large number of banks and institutions across America,'' Brown said. ``We have a smaller number of banks''