The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown says US President Barack Obama shares the view of former British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Brown, who wrote an opinion piece in London's Sunday Times prior to his upcoming visit to the United States, said that Obama's ideals are almost identical to those of Churchill.

"Churchill described the joint inheritance of Britain and America as not just a shared history but a shared belief in the great principles of freedom and the rights of man - what Barack Obama has described as the enduring power of our ideals - democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope," Brown wrote.

Brown will travel to Washington for a meeting with Obama at the White House on Tuesday, during which he said he would discuss the prospects of a global pact to save the world's ailing economy.

"I believe there is no challenge so great or so difficult that it cannot be overcome by America, Britain and the world working together," Brown wrote.

"That is why President [Barack] Obama and I will discuss this week a global new deal, whose impact can stretch from the villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London and New York - and giving security to the hardworking families in every country."

The British premier's optimism comes while the UK is facing its worst financial crisis for more than a century -- surpassing even the Great Depression of the 1930s, according to Ed Balls, former economic secretary to the treasury.

The British government had to spend hundreds of billions of pounds to keep afloat its banking industry while the US is bracing for spending USD 787b on melting economy.

Brown will become the first European leader to visit Obama since he took office and the second world leader to do so, since Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso visited the White House for a meeting on Tuesday.

The British leader will also address a joint session of both houses of Congress on Wednesday.

MMN/HAR