(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-20 16:53

London - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani bragged about his international celebrity Wednesday on a trans-Atlantic campaign trip in which he schmoozed with conservative idol Margaret Thatcher.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani points to the logo as he delivers the Margaret Thatcher Atlantic Bridge lecture in London, September 19, 2007. [AP]

"I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world," Giuliani told a small group of reporters at a posh London hotel as onlookers gathered in the lobby to gawk at actor Dustin Hoffman who was on a separate visit.

The former New York mayor is the latest GOP presidential candidate to travel to Britain, meeting the country's new political guard and rubbing elbows with Thatcher, an icon for American conservatives.

"This is no time for defeatism and appeasement," Giuliani told a gathering of the Atlantic Bridge, a group that promotes ties between British and American conservatives. "It may be better to put it as Margaret Thatcher might have done -- this is no time to go wobbly."

Thatcher, 81, attended the speech at the hotel.

Giuliani told reporters he has made 91 trips to 35 countries in five years and many governments seek him out for advice on security. He was given an honorary knighthood in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II for his leadership after the September 11 terror attacks.

But who are the four other best-known Americans?

"Bill Clinton ... Hillary," he said, but he was whisked away for another engagement before he could throw out any other names.

At odds with many American conservatives and religious leaders for his support for gun control as well as abortion and gay rights, Giuliani has said the United States needs strong leadership in the future -- much like that of Ronald Reagan.

If he became president, he said, he would increase the size of the US military by at least 10 combat brigades, fight Islamic terrorist groups, encourage governments to share intelligence information and push for the further expansion of NATO.

Many have lauded him for his leadership in the wake of the September 11 attacks, which he said few American leaders could have predicted.

"I don't think any president can be faulted for not being a prophet," he said.

That said, however, Giuliani criticized the decision to treat the first attack on the World Trade Center, in 1993, as a crime rather than an act of war. He also said the US government was tepid in responding to the bombings of the USS Cole and US embassies in East Africa.

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