Gordon Brown’s Government took another tentative step to distance itself from President Bush yesterday, as one of the Prime Minister’s chief lieutenants delivered a series of coded criticisms of American foreign policy.

Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, used a speech in Washington last night to rebuke what many in Labour’s ranks regard as Mr Bush’s unilateralist and high-handed approach. Mr Alexander said that a country’s might was “too often measured in what \ could destroy” and that “in the 21st century, strength should be measured by what we can build together”.

In an appeal for greater use of reformed multilateralist institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, he said: “Just as we need the rule of law at home to have civilisation, so we need rules abroad to ensure global civilisation.”

Much of Mr Alexander’s speech, the first made abroad by a Cabinet member since Tony Blair’s departure, was devoted to expressing admiration for the US. “There are few global challenges that do not require the active engagement of the United States,” he said, before calling on it to adopt new policies, alliances and priorities that “do not just protect us from the world — but reach out to the world”.

Mr Alexander also reiterated the need for a “global cap” on greenhouse gas emissions in which rich nations need to be at the “forefront”.

Mr Bush favours a looser system of national targets that apply equally to less-developed economies such as China and India, as well as the US.

The White House publicly maintains that it has been encouraged and reassured by Mr Brown’s early forays into foreign policy, which remains, in substance if not in tone, similar to that of Mr Blair. But privately, US Administration officials are voicing concern over recent signals. These include the appointment of Lord Malloch-Brown — a critic of Mr Bush in his previous job at the UN — to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as well as Mr Brown’s apparent reluctance to use the language of the War on Terror or repeat Mr Blair’s fears about the threat posed by “radical Islam”.

This week, the Prime Minister used a radio interview to acknowledge the “failures at the beginning of the war”, and Labour MPs have hinted that Mr Bush’s growing difficulties with Congress on Iraq will make it easier for the British Government to order an early withdrawal of troops from Basra.

Kurt Volker, the State Department’s chief policymaker on Western Europe, told The Times yesterday: “We’re not expecting wholesale changes in policy out of the British Government. We have a lot of confidence in Brown’s leadership.” He added: “Gordon Brown will, of course, be conscious that there was a fatigue factor with Blair and he will be delivering something different.”

Asked about Mr Brown’s comments on Iraq, he said: “If you use the word ‘failure’ when it was you who was Prime Minister at the time, the press would have a field day. You get a little more licence as someone new, to move on and have a fresh start.”

Philip Gordon, a specialist in European relations at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said that the nuances of Mr Brown’s statements in recent weeks “give you the impression that he is distancing himself from Mr Bush”. He highlighted the excitement felt by the Bush Administration about the new pro-American French Government of Nicolas Sarkozy and, to a lesser extent, that of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

Mr Volker dismissed suggestions that Britain’s influence could be diluted by the re-emergence of France and Germany, which had fallen out with Mr Bush over Iraq. He said that “the British-US relationship is a presumption” that would only be enhanced by “other countries joining the team”.

In his speech yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Alexander said that behind the headlines of the threat of terrorism and climate change were issues ranging from migration and population growth to global poverty and trade disputes.

Last night in response to a question from The Times about why he had omitted any reference to Mr Bush in his speech about the need for greater international co-operation, he said that the Prime Minister had already spoken directly to President Bush. “I would regard it as essential that we need to continue having an effective and strong dialogue,” he added.

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