Brown says deal to avert BA strike possible

Brown, facing an election by June, told parliament that BA and union leaders needed to take "a deep breath" and resume talks as the dispute threatened to spread across the Atlantic.

Officials from the Unite union will meet representatives of the powerful U.S. Teamsters union, which has 1.4 million members, for talks in Washington on Wednesday.

Neither union has said what the talks could lead to beyond expressions of solidarity, but media reports suggested that U.S. workers might end up disrupting flights by refusing to clean or refuel aircraft.

"We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at Unite who are fighting for a fair contract at British Airways," Teamsters said in a statement.

Unite has called out BA cabin crew on a three-day strike from Saturday, with a four-day walkout scheduled for March 27, although both the company and the union say they are still open to talks to prevent the industrial action.

"What we need to do is to get the unions and the management to talk to each other," Brown told parliament. "I have talked to both sides and I believe the agreement that was near to being reached last Thursday is one on which they can build for an agreement this week."

Unite said it had received a large number of enquiries from trade unions around the world offering support and the Washington talks had been instigated by Teamsters.

"We have been invited there to debrief them on an issue that they feel is of importance, the standards in the aviation industry," a spokeswoman said. "Obviously all expressions of support for crew are very welcome."

BA, whose shares closed down 2 percent on Wednesday, expressed dismay at the move.