ANALYSIS - UK's Brown struggles to revive political fortunes

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - Buffeted by rows over Libya and Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown appears powerless to seize the initiative and turn around his fortunes before a national election due within nine months.

Brown has just returned from his summer holiday for a crucial new political year, but has been blown off course by an outcry over the Scottish government's decision to release a Libyan agent convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing.

The release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi angered Washington and many relatives of victims of the attack that killed 270 people, most of them Americans.

A surge in deaths of British troops in Afghanistan has put the spotlight on whether Brown has given the forces enough money for helicopters and life-protecting vehicles.

While the news is slightly better on the economic front, Britain is still mired in recession while European rivals France and Germany have returned to growth.

Brown has been left constantly reacting to newspaper headlines and has presented few new initiatives that could turn around what appears to be an inevitable slide to defeat at the election, due by next June.

Opinion polls consistently give the opposition Conservatives a double-digit lead over Brown's Labour Party, in power since 1997, enough to give them a parliamentary majority.

"Unfortunately for Gordon Brown, the story seems to be set ... Everything is seen in terms of the expected Labour defeat and the probable Conservative landslide," said Steven Fielding, director of Nottingham University's Centre for British Politics.