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@ad441
700c definitely better for roads. Main reason for going 26" is if you're going somewhere further from Europe/America where there is limited availability of 700c. That's simplifying it a lot... I think it doesn't matter that much. You can find pages of people debating this kind of thing online if you really want (but I'd avoid it).
Really it depends how long you're going for - if it's shorter than a month or two I'd just go with whatever you can get together easily - I spent a lot of time stressing about what equipment to take and in the end it wasn't what really mattered when I was actually touring. As long as you're comfortable riding it and it's reasonably solid mechanically then just go - maybe you'll be a bit slower than if you'd built up the perfect touring bike, but I feel speed isn't really what touring's about.
As for brakes - again whichever you've got already/can get easily. Though personally I'd say best choice for an expedition type bike would be good mechanical disc brakes (e.g. Avid BB7s).
But don't worry too much - it's easy to get sidetracked by reading long debates on the web about the best choice of equipment and I worry that these put more people off than they encourage. We're probably all guilty of spending too much time thinking about bikes & components, but those aren't likely to be what you remember about a tour afterwards.
S1mon - that's great, really pleased it helped, where did you go?