The Guardian takes a speech by Douglas Alexander, the trade and development secretary, in the US last night and runs with it on its front page. Under the headline "Brown message to US: it's time to build, not destroy", the paper suggests the speech asserts the importance of multilateralism to Brown and marks a clear sign that he will reorder Britain's foreign policy.
Mr Alexander said in the speech that a country's strength should no longer be measured by its destructive military power and that "we must form new alliances, based on common values, ones not just to protect us from the world but ones which reach out to the world". The paper quotes a British source in Washington who said the Brown team was asserting its independence "one policy speech at a time".
The speech came as George Bush faces renewed pressure to change strategy in Iraq. A 25-page White House report released yesterday found satisfactory progress on only eight of 18 crucial benchmarks set by Congress for gauging the success of the president's strategy. The findings come six months after Mr Bush's troop "surge" into Iraq.
The International Herald Tribune says the president is now on "borrowed time" - by September, when a fuller report on security progress in Iraq is due, the chances that Congress will intervene to accelerate a troop withdrawal are expected to "skyrocket". However, the Telegraph urges patience. The full effect of the surge will not be felt for some months, says the paper - we need to give it enough time to prove itself.
The Independent is having none of it. The description of the Iraq situation in the report - "complex and extremely challenging" - is, says the paper, "diplomatic language for as bad as it gets". If all Mr Bush can offer is yesterday's defence - that things will get worse before they get better - then, warns the Indy, the immediate prospects for Iraq look dark indeed.
This is an extract from the Wrap, our digest of the daily papers.
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