PM hails UK tourism opportunities

Mr Brown was shown Liverpool's docks area ahead of the cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said Britain must be a leader in the "new type of world economy", as his cabinet held a meeting in Liverpool.

He told the city's tourism executives Liverpool's regeneration "shows what can be done for the future".

British tourism must grasp the "huge opportunities" ahead, Mr Brown said.

The Liberal Democrats said Mr Brown's "hollow words" would not reassure British hoteliers and bed and breakfasts facing bankruptcy.

Mr Brown and his top team are in Liverpool for the third cabinet meeting to be held outside London since September.

'Hypothetical debate'

They are expected to discuss the Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates to an all time low of 1.5%.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper told the BBC that while a lot of people were on fixed rate mortgages - four million mortgage holders had already benefitted from rate cuts, as well as the banks.

But she said stories that the government was planning to boost the money supply were part of a "hypothetical debate".

We are in difficult world times, I don't think anybody is in any doubt about that Gordon Brown

"This is not the issue here right now, of course in America where interest rates are much lower they have been looking at different ways to support the economy with interest rates near to zero. But that's not the position we are in here or elsewhere in Europe."

She said the government was looking at "different ways" to increase bank lending and get money into the economy, for example through tax cuts and public investment.

The prime minister is on a tour of the English regions and Wales to explain how the government is handling the downturn.

Ahead of the cabinet meeting, ministers gathered for a "listening" event with about 200 Liverpool residents.

'Future investment'

And Mr Brown told a meeting of tourism chiefs at Liverpool's Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool's regeneration was an example of how British tourism could benefit from burgeoning world tourism, as economies such as China and India develop.

He said four million British jobs depended on tourism, which generated