Obama backs French call for Europe growth policies

President Barack Obama threw his weight behind French calls more pro-growth policies in Europe, as he welcomed G8 leaders to Camp David for a summit darkened by Greece's possible eurozone exit.

Obama set the stage for a fractious meeting of world leaders by forging an alliance with new French President Francois Hollande over the need to jolt Europe back to growth.

Fearing Europe's crisis is poised to worsen -- with dangerous repercussions for the US economy and perhaps Obama's chances of re-election -- Obama risked the ire of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has championed an austerity-first approach.

Shortly before welcoming Merkel and other leaders to his famed presidential retreat outside Washington, Obama noted that events in Europe held "extraordinary" importance for the United States.

The G8 needed to discuss "a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda," he said.

To kick-off the summit a tie-free Obama greeted leaders shortly after dusk at the threshold of his wood cabin for an informal dinner.

But the dressed-down atmosphere did little to relieve tensions, which have been stoked by the belief that two-years of painful cuts demanded by Germany and others have undercut Greek growth and made recovery more difficult.

In what may have been a telling moment, Obama greeted Merkel at his Laurel Lodge with a cordial: "How've you been?" When her response came: a shrug and pursed lips, Obama conceded: "Well, you have a few things on your mind."

Publicly European leaders have attempted to smooth over the splits within the G8, insisting austerity and stimulus need not be mutually exclusive.

"We need to take action for growth while staying the course in terms of putting our public finances in order. Stability and growth go together, they are two sides of the same coin," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the summit.

But with Greece's fiscal crisis apparently approaching denouement, those good words may be sorely tested.

The recent clobbering of Greek parties that back austerity measures under the country's 173-billion-euro ($220 billion) bailout has sparked a fresh round of market panic and left the two-year-old effort to prevent a Greek default on life support.

Fresh Greek polls are scheduled for June 17, but there is no certainty that supporters of the painful reforms will win, and already nervous Greeks have been pulling money from bank accounts.

If anti-austerity parties win, the markets are already betting that the rest of Europe turns off the bailout spigot, a decision that would force a Greek default and would likely spell an exit from the eurozone.

"Time is clearly running out," London-based analysts Capital Economics warned in a note over Greece's continued political paralysis.

"If the government does not meet the conditions required to receive the next tranche of the bailout, it could run out of money before the end of the summer," they said, referring to Greece's EU-IMF loan lifeline.

So far, European leaders are insisting that Greece must meet its commitments, a stance that will likely be held until the elections. But a row is brewing over whether Greece's bailout package needs to be revisited.

Two years of austerity have resulted in crippling unemployment and while Greeks say they are overwhelmingly in favor of staying in the eurozone, there is little appetite for more budget cuts.

Spain on Friday also revised its 2011 public deficit figure, saying that it stood at 8.9 percent of gross domestic product instead of 8.51 percent as reported earlier.

The conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pledged to cut the country's deficit to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product this year.

But the European Commission, in a spring economic forecast for the European Union, warned that Spain's deficit would reach 6.4 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2013, more than twice the EU limit.

Germany sought to be reassuring on Friday, saying it had no reason to doubt that Spain could help its banks without seeking outside aid -- the problem Ireland faced when it had to be bailed out in 2010.

Diplomats say major new initiatives are unlikely to come from the G8 summit, but Obama's intervention tips Europe's political calculus toward pro-growth policies before European officials gather in the coming weeks to thrash out concrete measures.

Commission president Barroso said there was growing consensus around the idea of specific investments funded by common European bonds -- a measure he said would satisfy the need for austerity and stimulus.

"We need to compliment the fiscal consolidation efforts for reforms with investment," he told AFP on the margins of the summit.

G8 leaders will hold their main discussions on Europe's fiscal plight Saturday at Camp David's rustic collection of cabins on the wooded Catoctin Mountain in Maryland, outside Washington.

Friday night's dinner discussions were expected to focus on Iran's contested nuclear program ahead of talks between global powers and the Islamic Republic in Baghdad later this month.

The leaders are also expected to address Syria's crackdown on its anti-government uprising, fears that North Korea will launch a new nuclear test and Myanmar, after Obama eased US investment restrictions Thursday on the country formerly known as Burma.

Diplomats said the weekend would also see an agreement on how to help newly free Arab nations recover state assets moved abroad by members of previous regimes.

The G8 club of developed nations includes the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

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