Brown: Britain to strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation with U.S. in Yemen

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, says his country is working with the US to strengthen their counter-terrorism cooperation in Yemen.

He made these comments during an interview with the BBC. According to the Prime Minister's Office, the two countries will work together to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in the country.

Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister, said, "I think we've got to also get back to the source of this, and that is Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and we've got to recognize that we've got a group of young people who have been radicalized as a result of teaching by extreme clerics, and we've got to recognize that we're fighting a battle for hearts and minds here as much as everything else. We will work with the American authorities, as General Petraeus is in Yemen at the moment, we'll work with them to improve the counter terrorism of the Yemeni authorities."

Britain's Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party Gordon Brown addresses media at the news conference during the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 17, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Charisius

UK,US fund Yemeni anti-terrorism unit

An unnamed British official, said London is expected to give more than 160 million US dollars to Yemen in 2011 for counter-terrorism purposes. Over the weekend, US General David Petraeus met with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sa-n'a to discuss coordination in the fight against al-Qaida.

Petraeus, announced that this year, Washington will more than double 67 million US dollars in counter-terrorism aid that it provided to Yemen in 2009.