Premier Ewart Brown was scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush in the White House this morning on the opening day of a hectic three-day trip to Washington, DC.

Dr. Brown, accompanied by US Consul General Gregory Slayton and a small Bermuda delegation, will meet the President at 11.30 a.m., Bermuda time. It will be the first time a Bermuda leader has met with a US President since David Saul met Bill Clinton in the Oval Office in March, 1996.

With Mr. Bush due to leave office in January next year at the end of eight years in the White House, Dr. Brown has described the meeting as "a courtesy visit".

The two men vying to replace Mr. Bush, Democratic Party candidate Sen. Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, are busy fighting their campaigns for the presidential election and will not meet the Bermuda group.

Half an hour has been pencilled into the schedule this afternoon for a "closed meeting". No further information has been given.

Although the main aim of the trip is to nurture relationships with influential US lawmakers, Dr. Brown will start the day by having breakfast with Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the American central bank.

Also attending the event will be some delegates of the first Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit at the Ronald Reagan Building, where Mr. Greenspan is the keynote speaker. After listening to Mr. Greenspan's speech, the Premier will make his way up Pennsylvania Avenue to meet Mr. Bush.

This afternoon, Dr. Brown will be interviewed on The Armstrong Williams Show on XM Satellite Radio to promote Bermuda tourism and in the evening he will return to the Tourism Summit for its gala reception.

Over the following two days, the group is scheduled to meet a series of politicians and all of those named on the schedule are Democrats.

Tomorrow, the group will meet Representatives G.K. Butterfield, Kendrick Meek, Joseph Crowley, Elijah Cummings and Paul Kanjorski, before attending a reception as the guest of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers.

On Wednesday, the Premier will meet Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Bennie Thompson.

Mr. Slayton has played a major role in establishing Bermuda's annual visit to the Washington corridors of power, having arranged previous whirlwind tours in May 2006 and June 2007.

In both previous years, the visitors have met two of the most influential politicians in the area of taxation and finance — Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus and the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means chairman Charles Rangel. This time, neither name appears on the schedule. Nor are there any officials from the US Treasury mentioned, although they also appeared on the list in both previous years.

On the plus side, Rep. Kanjorski is chairman of the house panel that oversees the insurance industry and Rep. Meek and Rep. Crowley are among the majority group on Ways and Means.

Dr. Brown clearly expected to see Rep. Rangel, as he indicated in a speech given last Tuesday to open the Bermuda Captive Conference, when he said: "This month I will meet again with Ways and Means chairman Charlie Rangel... I want him to know that legislation under the purview of his committee is tremendously important to us and we think Bermuda's position is tremendously important to American citizens, especially the millions living along American coastlines."

But Mr. Slayton made clear at a news conference last week that the schedule would likely be in a state of flux until very late, describing it as "a last-minute situation".

The delegation is likely to promote the role of the Bermuda insurance and reinsurance industry in underpinning segments of the US economy and seek assurances that legislation aimed at cracking down on tax havens will not damage the Island as an insurance industry centre.

Other topics of conservation in previous years have included the notion of having a US Coast Guard base in Bermuda, the "Stop List", which bars Bermudians with criminal convictions from entering the US, and regulatory action taken by Bermuda to step up the Island's fight against money laundering.

Among the Premier's entourage will be Cabinet Secretary Marc Telemaque, an executive aide and Press Secretary Glenn Jones.