Jack Straw heads to the US on Tuesday amid growing alarm at the increasingly isolationist approach of the Bush administration.

The foreign secretary will use his visit to call for a mature transatlantic approach on major differences of opinion over trade and international politics.

His visit comes as the US announced that it is to turn its back on plans for the creation of an international criminal court.

The foreign secretary conceded that the two governments were at odds on issues such as steel tariffs and the Kyoto protocall.

Speaking ahead of his visit he said: "I think we get very twitchy about our relations with the US because it's not a symmetrical relationship. It is not a reason for us not being relatively mature and in most cases pretty relaxed about the differences between the US and Europe."

He stressed that the "fundamental strength of the relationship between Europe and the United States is an enduring one" and said that lessons could be learned from the way divisions had been dealt within Europe.

"There are also pretty substantial differences between we in the United Kingdom and our European partners," he told the BBC. "We've worked out a way of accommodating our concerns with our European partners."