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New British PM to Visit Obama at White House

   Jennifer Glasse 20 July 2010
   Britain's  PM David Cameron leaves Downing Street to attend the weekly
   Prime  Ministers Questions in the Houses of Parliament in London (File
   Photo)

Photo: AP

   Britain's  PM David Cameron leaves Downing Street to attend the weekly
   Prime  Ministers Questions in the Houses of Parliament in London (File
   Photo)

   White House officials say Afghanistan will top the agenda when British
   Prime  Minister  David  Cameron  makes  his  first visit to Washington
   Tuesday.

   Spokesman  Robert  Gibbs  said  Monday  that Mr. Cameron and President
   Barack  Obama  will  discuss  the  issues they spoke about during last
   month's   G20  summit  in  Toronto  -  Afghanistan  being  "first  and
   foremost."

   Mr.  Cameron  has  said  he  would  like  to see British troops out of
   Afghanistan by no later than 2015. President Obama has set a July 2011
   deadline  to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but he is
   stressing the process will be gradual.

   Both  leaders  say they are giving the Afghan government time to build
   its own security forces.

   White  House  officials  also  say  allegations of BP's involvement in
   freeing the Lockerbie bomber will likely come up in Tuesday's talks.

   Prime   Minister  Cameron  plans  to  meet  with  four  U.S.  senators
   (Democrats  Kirsten Gillibrand, Frank Lautenberg, Robert Menendez, and
   Charles Schumer) at the British embassy in Washington Tuesday.

   Senators from the states of New York and New Jersey allege BP may have
   lobbied  the  British  government  to free the bomber to help secure a
   $900 million offshore oil drilling deal with Libya.

   Scotland  freed  Abdel  Basset  al-Megrahi  last  year on humanitarian
   grounds  after doctors said he had cancer and only months to live. But
   he is still alive and living in Libya.

   Mr. Cameron has called the release of Megrahi a mistake. British-based
   BP denies it had anything to do with Megrahi's release.

   BP is already under fire in the U.S. concerning the Gulf of Mexico oil
   spill.

   Last week, the four lawmakers from New York and New Jersey demanded an
   investigation,  writing  in  a  letter  to  Secretary of State Hillary
   Clinton  that  the  Gulf  of Mexico oil spill shows that BP would "put
   profits ahead of people."

   On   Monday,   Secretary   Clinton  called  on  British  and  Scottish
   authorities  to  review  the  circumstances leading up to the bomber's
   freedom.

   Megrahi,  a  former  Libyan  intelligence  agent,  is the only suspect
   convicted  for  the  1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
   Scotland, killing 270 people.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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