World needs US to fix its economy: Obama

NEW YORK: Troubled economies around the world are waiting for the United States to fix its own economy and help a global recovery, US President Barack Obama said Wednesday.

Speaking to a forum of international business and philanthropic leaders in New York, Obama said US leadership was key.

"Around the world, people are still reeling from the financial crisis," he said. "America is still the biggest economy in the world. So the single most important thing we could do for the global economy is to get our own economy moving again. When America is growing, the world is more likely to grow."

Obama's speech was his latest pitch to persuade opposition Republicans to back a jobs creation plan that he says can put the stagnating US economy on the path to growth, but which opponents say will fail to help private business.

He was speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual forum headed by former president Bill Clinton, a fellow Democrat.

Obama said the weak US economy also threatened the country's ability to fund the kind of foreign humanitarian projects championed at the forum.

"If the economy's not growing, if Americans are not getting back to work, it becomes that much harder for us to sustain the critical development," he said. Economic health "will help determine how well we can support what you are doing in the not-for-profit sector."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011