Brown offers to cut UK's nuclear submarine fleet

Gordon Brown is expected to tell the United Nations he is willing to cut the UK's fleet of Trident nuclear missile-carrying submarines.

The prime minister will make the gesture in an attempt to stimulate global disarmament negotiations, reports suggest.

Mr Brown will address the UN general assembly in New York later on Wednesday where he will offer to reduce the UK's modernised fleet.

'If we are serious about the ambition of a nuclear-free world we will need statesmanship, not brinkmanship,' he is expected to tell world leaders.

The announcement will not dramatically reduce the UK's nuclear arsenal however with foreign secretary David Miliband declaring it imperative that the UK still has an independent nuclear deterrent.

The government has already pledged to cut its nuclear arsenal from 200 to 160 warheads.

Some critics have claimed Mr Brown's gesture does not go far enough though and cynics claim it simply represents an attempt to reduce the UK's huge public sector debt.

Kate Hudson, from Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), welcomed the announcement but said the government needed to do more.

'Opinion polls are consistently showing a majority of the public oppose Trident replacement,' she said.

'People rightly question spending in excess of £76 billion on a system that retired generals describe as militarily useless and which does nothing to protect against current threats to our security.

'Why cut public services when you can cut useless weapons of mass destruction?'

US president Barack Obama will continue his series of high-profile talks this week when he hosts a meeting on nuclear disarmament with fellow world leaders.