Britain has backed India for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council to make the world body more credible and effective.
Outlining foreign policy priorities at his first address at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for examination of interim options to reform the UN Security Council.
He said the global flows of capital and sourcing of goods and services to India and China have brought the biggest shift of economic power since the industrial revolution with legitimate global aspirations.
"Long term but now interim options must be examined to reform a UN Security Council -- whose permanent members do not include Japan, India, Brazil, Germany or any African country -- to make the council more representative, more credible and more effective," Brown said.
The British premier also proposed setting up of a nuclear fuel bank to help non-nuclear states acquire new sources of energy. "But this offer should be made only as long as these countries renounce nuclear weapons and meet internationally enforced non-proliferation standards," he said.