WHEN Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, arrives in Britain this week, he will start the job of presenting a new face of America to Europe.

“We need to do a better job on America’s image,” he said, citing the many differences he has had over the years with President George W Bush, from the conduct of the war in Iraq to the importance of climate change.

Once he reaches British soil, he intends to adopt a more neutral tone. It is against diplomatic protocol to criticise your country abroad. In any case, McCain is grateful to Bush for endorsing him as the Republican nominee.

When he received the president’s blessing at the White House, “Johnny Mac”, as Bush calls him, felt a tingle of excitement. “It is daunting and humbling to think you are that close to it,” McCain said. “It hit home for the first time that it’s possible I could be there.”

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Having pulled off a triumph in the Republican contest after being left for dead last summer, McCain has the jaunty air of a man who believes he can win the presidency, no matter how tight a race the polls predict.

In an interview on board his Straight Talk Express bus as it rattled through New Hampshire, the scene of his political resurrection, he joked that David Cameron, the 41-year-old Conservative leader, whom he is meeting this week, was just the sort of enticing young figure to make an excellent running mate, if only the rules permitted.

“He’s a very attractive and very astute leader,” McCain said, “but we do have a little clause in our constitution forbidding it.”

At 71, McCain would be America’s oldest new president but he has already seen off younger Republican rivals and believes he has the stamina to beat whoever the Democrats pick. The secret of success against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton is to “Be yourself”, he said.

The motto has served McCain well, from his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to his presidential nomination, which was won without any favours from the Republican establishment, freeing him to be his own man. This week, he is embarking on a six-day tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Britain and France which will burnish his credentials to be America’s commander-in-chief.

He admitted, “I do miss Tony Blair” – America’s staunchest friend over Iraq – but said he regarded Gordon Brown, the prime minister, as “a fine man” whom he had met on the international conference circuit. He predicted they would bond over the issue of global warming.

McCain is a passionate environmentalist, who takes the threat of climate change seriously. “I know it’s a prime issue for Gordon Brown as well as Tony Blair and I’m expecting him to raise the issue with me,” he said. Friends believe it will be a “mood-changer” for America’s reputation in Europe, which soured when Bush refused to sign the Kyoto protocol early on in his presidency.

The meeting is strictly supposed to be about national security – McCain is coming here as a member of the Senate armed services committee rather than a presidential candidate – but no matter. “There is a very real connection between oil at $109 a barrel and national security,” he said. “We are sending nearly half our trade deficit to countries that do not like us very much and some of it is ending up in the hands of terrorists. That’s a fact.”

If America and Europe do not lessen their dependence on oil, he wondered: “What happens if there is a cataclysmic event which cuts off this supply?”

McCain, like Brown, never uses the phrase the “war on terror”. He prefers to say “the struggle against radical Islamic extremism”. It is a battle he believes must be fought with ideological weapons as well as combat troops. If elected president, “I will declare that we will never torture another person held in American custody. That’s hurt our image a great deal,” he said.

A former high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq told McCain that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal had been his greatest recruiting tool.

McCain would also close Guantanamo Bay, the terrorist detention centre in Cuba. “It’s become a symbol [of abuse] around the world even though I’m confident now that the treatment of detainees is excellent,” he said.

McCain, who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, would restore the primacy of the Geneva conventions so that no foreign power could mistreat American prisoners of war with impunity. But there must be no let-up in the US troop surge in Iraq, he is expected to tell Brown.

The senator will be spending today in Baghdad, receiving an update on the ground before moving on to London on Wednesday. He is already convinced, however, that the way to beat the extremists is “by continuing the surge and continuing the progress we’re having”.

“Al-Qaeda is on the run, but it is not defeated,” he warned. “If we leave prematurely, we’ll have chaos and genocide in the region and American blood and treasure will be sacrificed in much greater quantities.”

The terrorists would crow that, “they’ve defeated the United States and the war would follow America home”.

McCain is concerned about deteriorating security in Basra, southern Iraq, and the growing power of radical Shi’ite militias. Brown was planning to withdraw a further 1,400 British troops from the south this spring but that figure has been reduced to 900, leaving 3,200 there. McCain is disappointed with the reduction but resigned to the political realities in Britain.

“I understand the internal politics. I recognise that the British public are very intent on leaving Iraq and I’m very grateful for what they’ve done,” he said. But he hopes that he will be able to persuade Europe to do more to rebuild Iraq and step up the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

There is no doubt he believes his presence in the White House would be as symbolic a departure from Bush as the election of a Democrat, even if the election of a white male politician is not quite as epoch-making as his rivals.

“Can an African-American be elected president? Sure. Can a woman? Sure. You’ve got to believe in the fairness of America,” he said.

“A lot of us are kind of proud that an African-American and a woman can compete seriously for the nomination of a major party. I believe that one day we’ll have one on the Republican ticket – just not this time.”

McCain believes his appeal to independents and Reagan Democrats – patriotic, working-class voters – will enable him to win states such as California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for the Republicans.

On his return to America next week, he intends to give a major national security speech and then embark on a tour of the country while the Democrats are still squabbling over their nominee. “There are a lot of states where people don’t really know me,” he said, “so we’re going to reintroduce me to the American people.”

Grainy advertisements showing him as a prisoner of war in Vietnam who told his captors to “shove it” when they offered him early release began appearing last week. “Of course, there are some things we never want people to know. We will not be highlighting my adventures at the naval academy,” he grinned. Straight talk, his favourite phrase, only goes so far.

London visit

John McCain will remain in London for a break with his wife Cindy at the end of his official tour of Europe and the Middle East later this week.

First stop is the London Eye, the giant wheel by the Thames, which he has already visited three times. Then it is on to the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms.

Churchill stars in McCain’s campaign video vowing to fight them “on the beaches”, just as McCain insists he will “never surrender” to Al-Qaeda. McCain will also hold a £500-a-head fundraising lunch at Spencer House, built by an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Video: McCain talks about climate change and the environment

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