Premier Ewart Brown said his White House experience had been “more than he expected” after he spent 20 minutes chatting with US President George W. Bush in the Oval Office this morning.

Among the subjects the two leaders touched upon in Washington was the possibility of the US renting Clifton - an historic house in Devonshire which underwent a $1.5 million refurbishment two years ago – probably to be the official residence of the US Consul General in Bermuda.

The 200-year-old house, once the Government-provided home for Bermuda’s Premier, is next door to the US Consulate.

“I enjoyed it more than I expected and it went longer than I expected,” Dr. Brown said of his White House visit. “But the President was as pleasant and upbeat as I had been told he would be.

“We talked about Bermuda. He was interested in how we were doing in tourism and understood our rationale for rebuilding tourism and not having a one-legged economy.

He said he hoped he could add to our numbers after he could get away from the rigour of his present duties.

“He said he’s been to Bermuda before and it rained every day, so we told him we had corrected that problem!”

The meeting was part of Dr. Brown’s whistle-stop tour of Washington, during which he is meeting a string of influential politicians to discuss topics including the Bermuda insurance industry’s contribution to the US economy, tax issues, and the possibility of a US Coast Guard base being established. “I hope I will have some good news to report on that one,” he said.

Earlier today, Dr. Brown called in at the Caribbean Tourism Summit being held at the Ronald Reagan Building.

There he had breakfast with some Caribbean heads of government and guest speaker and former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.

Dr. Greenspan spoke about the effects of rising jet fuel prices on tourism in the Caribbean region and suggested the industry was resilient enough to continue growing in the future, despite more expensive air travel costs.

See more on the visit in tomorrow's Royal Gazette