U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says his government will consider apologizing for the first time for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade as it seeks to strengthen relations with nations in Africa and the Caribbean.

Writing in the Guardian on Saturday, Burnham said Britain needed to acknowledge its "complicated history" in order to protect the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent nations that grew out of the British Empire.

Burnham travels to Antigua and Barbuda next week for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.