Which of the Euro “Big 3” will have the first meeting?

William Hill has just put up a new market on which of Europe’s ‘Big Three’ leaders will be the first to hold an official meeting with new President.

Brown is favourite at evens, Merkel is 2/1 with Sarkozy the 3/1 outsider. (UPDATE Now 5/2)

The terms of the bet seem to favour Brown given there’s the G20 meeting scheduled for April – but Downing Street is already suggesting that the PM might be beaten.

But could one of the other get there first. Sarkozy seems to be the most enterprising and might be the best bet. A lot depends, of course, on the skills of the diplomatic services from the three countries in their dealings with the new administration in Washington.

There is also the suggestion that the new President might not want to have as close a relationship with Britain as his predecessors and Obama might see one of other two first to make that point.