Brown brings forward Bush summit to scotch rumours of rift

Gordon Brown has brought forward his first Washington summit with George W Bush to scotch speculation about a growing rift with the White House over Iraq. In a damage limitation exercise, the Prime Minister also ordered his chief of staff, Tom Scholar, to write to every member of his Cabinet emphasising the importance he attaches to the special relationship with America.

The cabinet round-robin will be seen as a slap down for Douglas Alexander, whose speech in Washington caused the speculation of a rift with the White House on both sides of the Atlantic. Suggestions that it amounts to a rebuke to Mr Alexander, one of Mr Brown's closest cabinet allies, were strongly denied in London. "We had no problem with the content of his speech," said a senior source. "It was just the interpretation put on it we objected to."

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The Prime Minister had been expected to delay his visit to Washington until mid-September but Mr Brown is now seeking a meeting with President Bush at the end of this month. He has already caused raised eyebrows in the White House by appointing as a foreign minister Mark Malloch Brown, a strong critic of the Iraq policy when he was an aide to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

The note by Mr Scholar to the Cabinet repeated recent assurances by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, that the Brown Government is pursuing a policy of "active engagement" with the Bush administration.

Mr Brown ordered Downing Street to react quickly after the speech by Mr Alexander in Washington was interpreted as a shift of emphasis away from the Bush administration over Iraq.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman described as "extraordinary" and "nonsense" reports that the International Development Secretary had made coded criticism of the White House by saying a country's might in the past was "too often measured in what it could destroy". Mr Alexander said that in the 21st century strength should be measured by " what we can build together".

As the storm mounted over Mr Alexander's remarks, Mr Brown said: "We will not allow people to separate us from the US in dealing with common challenges that we face around the world. I think people have got to remember that the relationship between Britain and America and a British prime minister and an American president is built on things that we share ­ the same enduring values, about the importance of liberty, opportunity, the dignity of the individual ­ and I will continue to work as Tony Blair did very closely with the American administration."

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "I don't think anybody is telling anyone how to run their foreign policy. The interpretation that was put on Douglas Alexander's words was quite extraordinary."

The Prime Minister has spoken to Mr Bush three times since becoming Prime Minister, including a lengthy video conference from No 10 this week. He met Mr Bush briefly last month and relations were said to be cordial.

Labour MPs remained convinced last night that Mr Brown is subtly shifting the ground on foreign affairs.

One senior backbench MP said the key shift was over Mr Brown's determination to bring the United Nations back to the centre of international action, abandoning the doctrine of pre-emptive intervention pursued by Tony Blair.

Mr Brown will visit Berlin on Monday to meet Angela Merkel to discuss the forthcoming EU treaty summit. He will visit Paris later in the week for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.