Brown Bags First Euro Call, Visit From New President

Gordon Brown was the proud recipient of Barack Obama's first European phone call as president, the Guardian reports. The two leaders spoke for 15 minutes and discussed the need to make Afghanistan a priority. Obama, whose first overseas calls as president were to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, had earlier spoken to Saudi and Canadian leaders.

Obama and Brown also discussed the financial crisis and the situation in Zimbabwe in a "friendly and substantive" chat, a spokesman for the British prime minister said. Brown is expected to be the first European leader get a presidential visit when Obama attends the G20 summit in London this April. Nicolas Sarkozy's office confirmed that the French president is still waiting for a call from Obama.