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LONDON (AFP) – The government and the United States denied Thursday that President Barack Obama had snubbed Prime Minister Gordon Brown during meetings in the US this week, calling the suggestion "absurd" and "nonsense."
Newspapers reported that Downing Street requests for bilateral talks between the two men at the United Nations and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh had been rebuffed.
Instead of a formal meeting, Brown and Obama held a 15-minute "walk and chat" in a kitchen of the UN headquarters in New York as both men left the building on Tuesday night, the Daily Telegraph reported.
But Downing Street said any suggestion of a snub was "completely without foundation," while -- as Brown continued his US trip by heading to Pittsburgh -- British ministers in London also poured scorn on the reports.
"I'm absolutely convinced that Gordon Brown has not been snubbed by Barack Obama," said Home Secretary Alan Johnson, adding: "It is, I'm afraid to say, a bit of nonsense that creeps in from time to time."
The White House put out a statement, received via the US embassy in London, saying bluntly: "Any stories that suggest trouble in the bilateral relationship between the United States and UK are totally absurd.
"The US-UK special relationship is strong and doing well. We would add that President Obama and Prime Minister Brown enjoy a terrific relationship, they speak regularly on a range of the most difficult challenges facing our two nations and meet frequently," said the statement.
On Thursday Obama and Brown were due to co-host a Friends of Democratic Pakistan event. "Then, the leaders will also meet again in Pittsburgh at the G20," it added.
A White House spokesman later said the two leaders were in constant communication because of their nations' "special relationship".
"I think this is a media-generated bunch of silliness," spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One en route from New York to Pittsburgh. "Stop reading those London tabloids."
The Guardian newspaper in London called the reported snubs a blow for Brown, who is keen to boost his profile by appearing with Obama ahead of a general election in Britain due to be held by the middle of 2010.
Obama has held bilateral meetings in New York with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, it noted.
The release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber in August sparked anger from the US administration and the US relatives of victims of the atrocity.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi is the only person convicted of the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
The former Libyan intelligence agent was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds because he has terminal prostate cancer, and received a jubilant homecoming in Tripoli.
Brown has insisted that the decision was entirely a matter for the semi-autonomous Scottish government, and defended Britain against accusations of deal-making with oil-rich Libya over his release.
Newspapers reported that Downing Street requests for bilateral talks between the two men at the United Nations and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh had been rebuffed.
Instead of a formal meeting, Brown and Obama held a 15-minute "walk and chat" in a kitchen of the UN headquarters in New York as both men left the building on Tuesday night, the Daily Telegraph reported.
But Downing Street said any suggestion of a snub was "completely without foundation," while -- as Brown continued his US trip by heading to Pittsburgh -- British ministers in London also poured scorn on the reports.
"I'm absolutely convinced that Gordon Brown has not been snubbed by Barack Obama," said Home Secretary Alan Johnson, adding: "It is, I'm afraid to say, a bit of nonsense that creeps in from time to time."
The White House put out a statement, received via the US embassy in London, saying bluntly: "Any stories that suggest trouble in the bilateral relationship between the United States and UK are totally absurd.
"The US-UK special relationship is strong and doing well. We would add that President Obama and Prime Minister Brown enjoy a terrific relationship, they speak regularly on a range of the most difficult challenges facing our two nations and meet frequently," said the statement.
On Thursday Obama and Brown were due to co-host a Friends of Democratic Pakistan event. "Then, the leaders will also meet again in Pittsburgh at the G20," it added.
A White House spokesman later said the two leaders were in constant communication because of their nations' "special relationship".
"I think this is a media-generated bunch of silliness," spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One en route from New York to Pittsburgh. "Stop reading those London tabloids."
The Guardian newspaper in London called the reported snubs a blow for Brown, who is keen to boost his profile by appearing with Obama ahead of a general election in Britain due to be held by the middle of 2010.
Obama has held bilateral meetings in New York with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, it noted.
The release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber in August sparked anger from the US administration and the US relatives of victims of the atrocity.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi is the only person convicted of the murder of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988.
The former Libyan intelligence agent was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds because he has terminal prostate cancer, and received a jubilant homecoming in Tripoli.
Brown has insisted that the decision was entirely a matter for the semi-autonomous Scottish government, and defended Britain against accusations of deal-making with oil-rich Libya over his release.