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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's image is being used to promote holidays under the military dictatorship in Fiji - as UK travellers to the country are being told to be prepared for riots, and not to talk politics.
"How exactly No 10 and the Labour Party gave approval for an image of the Prime Minister - complete with hibiscus tucked jauntily behind his left ear - to emblazon advertisements for the Pacific islands is a matter of dispute," The Times newspaper reported today.
The advertisements have triggered a diplomatic incident and global embarrassment for Mr Brown as politicians in Fiji, Australia and New Zealand express outrage, the newspaper said.
Murray McCully, the National Party foreign affairs spokesman in New Zealand, said: "I'm not prepared to offer Mr Brown any advice but I can tell you that both major parties in New Zealand have consistently taken the approach that there should be a strong message going to the Fiji administration."
"Gordon Brown should be pushing the Fijian military to restore democracy, not promoting beach holidays," said Kerry Nettle, an Australian senator.
And Laisenia Qarase, former Fijian prime minister, described Downing Street's backing for the tourism campaign as "odd...the country is quite unstable and we have a regime that is dictatorial and undemocratic".
DK Advertising, a small London agency, had been asked to find a famous to front the promo. They first thought first of the Duke of Edinburgh and then Ken Livingstone. But it was Mr Brown chosen as the "face of Britain".
Steven Kenny, the agency's client services manager, said he made about seven calls to press officers in Downing Street and the Labour Party and showed the artwork to Labour officials before being given permission.
But No 10 officials now say there was a "misunderstanding" over the ads and that the proposed artwork was not cleared at the proper level.
"We would never normally give permission for images of the PM to be used in a commercial promotion," one official said.
Jane West, of the Fiji Visitors Bureau, described the response to the ads as "fantastic".
- NZPA
