Gordon Brown will arrive in the Gulf today to ask oil-rich states to use their vast wealth to steady the fragile world economy and to boost British business.

The day after Barclays raised £5.8 billion from funds in Abu Dhabi and Qatar, to avoid taking money from the Treasury, the Prime Minister will lead 27 senior business leaders on a mission to attract further Gulf investment in British companies.

Downing Street says that Middle Eastern states are critical to refinancing and stabilising global markets after multi-billion-dollar boosts to their income from oil because of the recent price spike.

No 10 denied yesterday that this amounted to Britain going cap in hand to the Middle East, echoing James Callaghan’s decision in 1976 as Prime Minister to seek funds from the International Monetary Fund. Mr Brown’s spokesman confirmed, however, that the sovereign wealth funds were an important target for British trade. He said that their significant wealth and reserves could “contribute to the refinancing of the global financial system.”

Among senior business figures in the delegation will be Ian Tyler, chief executive of Balfour Beatty; Tony Hayward, chief executive officer of BP; Sir John Rose, chief executive of Rolls-Royce; Dick Oliver, chairman of BAE Systems; and Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI, accompanied by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary.

Mr Brown is leading the trade mission because he is concerned that insufficient credit is available to British business. He is leaning on British banks to take action, and the Government will insist that the part-nationalised banks make ample lending available to small companies.

The Government is quietly negotiating a code of conduct with the banks to govern their dealings with small businesses to ensure that they do not impose harsh conditions at short notice. This may not solve the credit problems of larger companies.

Another aim of the trip will be to encourage countries with big foreign-exchange reserves to replenish the coffers of the IMF to facilitate loans to countries such as Iceland, Ukraine and Hungary. The Prime Minister and other European leaders believe that the IMF’s current $250 billion (£150 billion) bailout fund will be insufficient.

Mr Brown will use the four-day visit to try to prevent another oil shock like the one over the summer, when the price of a barrel of oil rose to $140. The issue has dropped down the political agenda since slackening demand led to a fall to about $65. This prompted a decision by Opec last week to announce a cut in production of 1.5 million barrels a day.

Downing Street says that demand for oil will inevitably increase, meaning that the long-term price will rise. The Prime Minister will renew his calls for transparency and stability in the oil price. Mr Brown first made this call in June during a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he called for some of the $3 trillion profits from the oil shock to be invested in wind, tidal and nuclear power in Western countries.

This week The Times reported that an international energy summit proposed by Britain was dropped after Opec threatened to boycott it unless heads of oil-producing states such as Colonel Gaddafi of Libya, President Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Chávez of Venezuela were invited.

No 10 says that the decision was taken to make the December gathering into a less high-profile meeting of energy ministers because heads of state and government will have a chance to discuss oil issues at President Bush’s global summit in Washington on November 15.

Another aim of the visit will be to seek political and economic support over Iraq, the Middle East peace process and tackling violent extremism.

Asked whether Mr Brown would raise the subject of human rights, his spokesman said that the talks would cover a range of issues.

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