The Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and US Capitol are seen from the air over Washington, DC.

Obama will hold discussions with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, it said in a statement.

 Obama has pressed behind the scenes for a strong European response to a regional debt crisis which threatens to spiral into global financial contagion,

and despite some market doubts, welcomed a EU debt accord last week.

 Lael Brainard, Treasury Department under secretary for International Affairs, said Obama still believed Europe had the capacity and resources to overcome its economic woes.

 "The challenges facing Europe have significant implications for the US economy and for the global economy," said Brainard. "The EU is a critical anchor of global stability and our single largest trading partner."

 While Obama has been encouraging European leaders from across the Atlantic in frequent telephone calls, his capacity to press for forthright action by his counterparts may be undermined by his diminished domestic political clout.

 The president has been unable to take the swift and sweeping action on the slowing US economy that he would like to, after Republicans in Congress refused to pass his $447 billion jobs package.

 The White House however rejects the idea that Obama's weight on the world stage has been hurt by his failure to forge further economic reform at home and argues his policies succeeded in staving off a second Great Depression.

 "He carries with him to France the fact that we are pushing our Congress to act on these matters, and he comes as the leader of the largest economy in the world and a great friend and ally of a great many nations," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

 "We continue to have a significant leading role to play at the G20 and other international fora," Carney added.

 Obama will stress that international role soon after his trip to France, when he flies to his native Hawaii, to host the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and attends an East Asia summit in Bali.

 Other topics on the table will also include the joint efforts to support democracy and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as coordination on Iran.

 The US-EU summit was announced ahead of the start on Thursday of a Group of 20 major economies (G20) meeting in France, one week after European leaders reached a deal to tackle the region's debt crisis.

 At the G20 meeting in Cannes, leaders of EU member states will meet up with their counterparts from the United States, China and others who have been pressing them to put their economic house in order.

 The most recent US-EU summit was held in Lisbon, Portugal on November 20, 2010.

 

- AFP/fa