Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    LONDON, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned on Thursday that 2009 "won't be easy" for Britons as the country is being bogged down by the financial crisis, yet he also voiced optimism on his people's strength.

    In the prime minister's traditional new year message, Brown said, "This coming year won't be easy, but I am determined that this government will be the rock of stability and fairness on which the British people can depend."

    The scale and speed of the global financial crisis had been almost overwhelming at times, Brown said, leaving people "bewildered, confused and sometimes frightened."

    However, he voiced the belief that the British people "can and will rise" to meet the grave challenges, "because we are not a do-nothing people and we have always risen to every challenge, we can meet the security challenge, the environmental challenge and the enormous economic challenge."

    He also said that great opportunities hide in the economic downturn, including technology, environment and transport growth potentials.

    "We must prepare ourselves for these massive opportunities as the world economy doubles in size over the next two decades," he said.

    "I want 2009 to be the year when the dawn of a new progressive era breaks across the world," Brown said.

    Britain is sliding into a recession after being hit by the financial crisis, with the economy contracted at its sharpest rate in the third quarter of 2008 since early 1990s.