Britain faces sink or swim moment: Cameron

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom (AFP) - Britain faces a sink or swim moment and must take painful action to avoid falling behind its global competitors, Prime Minister David Cameron was set to warn on Wednesday.

The struggling Conservative leader will use a crucial speech to his party's annual conference in the industrial city of Birmingham to urge recession-hit Britons to work harder and brace for more austerity.

"Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, unless we show determination and imagination, Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past. Sink or swim, do or decline," he will say according to advance extracts.

Mr Cameron will also strike a personal note and push for an economic recovery built on "hard work, strong families, taking responsibility and serving others."