Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will travel to Britain today on a two-day visit aimed at promoting and strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties, the foreign ministry said.

This will be Abdullah's second visit since assuming office as prime minister in October last year, it said in a statement to the official Bernama news agency.

"It will also provide the opportunity for the prime minister to engage in intellectual discourse about Islam and the West," the statement said.

Abdullah will deliver a keynote address at the Malaysia-UK Business Forum in London and also at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies besides holding a series of meetings with academics from Oxford University, it said.

He will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdullah Mohamed Zain as well as several senior officials.