UK's special relationship with US needs to be recalibrated, Obama tells ex-pats in Britain

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UK's special relationship with US needs to be recalibrated, Obama tells ex-pats in Britain
· Call for equal partnership in phone link to London
· Campaign raises $400,000 at event attended by 200
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/27/barackobama.uselections2008

Barack Obama has called for the "special relationship" between the US and Britain to be "recalibrated" to make it a fairer, more equal partnership, the Guardian has learned.

Senator Obama, who leads the race to be the Democratic candidate for the US presidency, made the remarks in a telephone address to a fundraising event attended by American expatriates in London.

He has long been seen by British officials as the most anglophile of the three remaining presidential candidates, but these latest comments are his first public suggestion that the relationship is unequal and ripe for change.

"We have a chance to recalibrate the relationship and for the United Kingdom to work with America as a full partner," Obama told more than 200 American expatriates gathered at the Notting Hill home of Elisabeth Murdoch, the head of Shine television production company and daughter of the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.