U.S. to unveil "more realistic" plan for military

Barack Obama, US President

(Reuters) - The Obama administration will unveil a "more realistic" vision for the military on Thursday, with plans to cut tens of thousands of ground troops and invest more in air and sea power at a time of fiscal restraint, officials familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.

The strategic review of U.S. security interests will also emphasize an American presence in Asia, with less attention overall to Europe, Africa and Latin America alongside slower growth in the Pentagon's budget, the officials said.

Though specific budget cut and troop reduction figures are not set to be announced on Thursday, officials confirmed to Reuters they would amount to a 10-15 percent decline in Army and Marine Corps numbers over the next decade, translating to tens of thousands of troops.

The most profound shift in the strategic review is an acceptance that the United States, even with the world's largest military budget, cannot afford to maintain the ground troops to fight more than one major war at once. That is a move away from the "win-win" strategy that has dominated Pentagon funding decisions for decades.

The move to a "win-spoil" plan, allowing U.S. forces to fight one campaign and stop or block another conflict, includes a recognition that the White House would need to ramp up public support for further engagement and draw more heavily on reserve and national guard troops when required.

"As Libya showed, you don't necessarily have to have boots on the ground all the time," an official said, explaining the White House view.

"We are refining our strategy to something that is more realistic," the official added.

President Barack Obama will help launch the U.S. review at the Pentagon on Thursday, and is expected to emphasize that the size of the U.S. military budget has been growing and will continue to grow, but at a slower pace.

Obama has moved to curtail U.S. ground commitments overseas, ending the war in Iraq, drawing down troops in Afghanistan and ruling out anything but air power and intelligence support for rebels who overthrew Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

The number of U.S. military personnel formally assigned to bases in Europe - including many now deployed in Afghanistan - is also set to decline sharply, administration sources said, while stressing that the final numbers have not been set.

'BASICALLY DISAPPEAR'

"When some army brigades start coming out of Afghanistan, they will basically disappear," one official said.

Many of the key U.S. military partners in the NATO alliance are also facing tough defense budget cuts as a result of fiscal strains gripping the European Union.

The president may face criticism from defense hawks in Congress, many of them opposition Republicans, who question his commitment to U.S. military strength.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, are set to hold a news conference to flesh out the contents of the review after Obama's remarks, which are also expected to stress the need to rein in spending at a time when U.S. budgets are tight.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the defense cuts stemming from an August debt ceiling deal - worth about $489 billion over 10 years - need to be enacted carefully.

"The president made clear to his team that we need to take a hard look at all of our defense spending to ensure that spending cuts are surgical and that our top priorities are met," Carney told reporters this week.

The military could be forced to cut another $600 billion in defense spending over 10 years unless Congress takes action to stop a second round of cuts mandated in the August accord.

Panetta spent much of Wednesday afternoon briefing key congressional leaders about the strategic review. Representative Adam Smith, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said after speaking to Panetta that the review was an attempt to evaluate U.S. strategic priorities for the future rather than identify specific budget reductions.

Maintaining a significant presence in the Middle East and Asia, especially to counter Iran and North Korea, was a leading priority in the review, Smith said. So was making sure that military personnel are sufficiently cared for to guarantee the effectiveness of the all-volunteer force. Reductions in the size of U.S. forces in Europe and elsewhere are a real possibility, he said.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said with the military winding down a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is appropriate to re-evaluate the role of U.S. forces abroad.

"From an operational perspective it's ... an opportune time to take a look at what the U.S. military is doing and what it should be doing or should be preparing itself to do over the next 10 to 15 years," he said on Wednesday.

"So, yes, the budget cuts are certainly a driver here, but so quite frankly are current events," Kirby said.

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Congress punts hard payroll tax work to 2012

Barack Obama

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed into law a two-month payroll tax cut extension on Friday, capping a year of fierce partisan combat over taxes and spending that will resume in January and play heavily in the 2012 elections.

The Senate and the House of Representatives, by voice votes in chambers nearly emptied for the holidays, passed a $33 billion (21 billion pounds) bill to keep the payroll tax rate at 4.2 percent through February. It had been scheduled to increase on January 1 to 6.2 percent. Obama swiftly signed the bill.

"We have a lot more work to do," the president said at the White House. "This continues to be a make-or-break moment for the middle class ... There are going to be some important debates next year."

Obama heads to vacation in Hawaii with an important political win in his portfolio after he and fellow Democrats prevailed in the message war by backing lower taxes for middle-class Americans in the midst of a fragile economic recovery.

The battle took a toll on House Republicans led by Speaker John Boehner, who were forced to make an embarrassing retreat and agree to a short-term deal Thursday after getting hit by critics on all sides, include their colleagues in the Senate.

The temporary fix lets lawmakers lower the curtain, for now, on a year of political deadlock that in the end produced only a series of inconclusive truces. The fiscal policy debate is set to rage straight through the 2012 election season and beyond.

While Congress is on a long winter break now and does not return to full swing until late January, newly appointed negotiators are expected to begin work soon on figuring out how to pay for extending the payroll tax cut through 2012.

Republicans have sought a continued freeze on federal worker pay and cuts in Medicare benefits for the wealthy. Democrats have rejected both ideas while proposing a surtax on the wealthy to cover the extension's cost. Republicans reject this.

Both sides have been open to cutting federal workers' pension benefits. There also were last-minute Senate negotiations last week on possibly ending some tax breaks for the wealthy, such as a small one involving corporate jets.

Minutes after the bipartisan deal was passed by Congress, the bickering that has come to dominate Capitol Hill resumed.

Republican Representative Tom Price, a leader of House conservatives, immediately criticized the short-term extension, calling it a "two-month punt" and saying it would not have been needed if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and Obama had "been willing to do their job today."

'NOTHING OFF THE TABLE'

In a sign that the battle is far from over, Reid signaled that Democrats could renew their push for a surtax on wealthier Americans. Democrats had dropped that demand during the year-end negotiations that produced the two-month deal.

"There is nothing off the table," he said.

Obama scored a victory in the payroll tax struggle over Tea Party conservatives in the House who tried to block the two-month extension. They backed down on Thursday in the face of bipartisan criticism, but they are not going away.

Representative Tim Huelskamp, a first-term Republican, said on CNN that he was disappointed with Republican leadership caving in to pressure and accepting the two-month deal.

Next year could be a rough one for Boehner, the top House Republican, said Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Boehner spent 2011 having to negotiate with many of his own party members on just about every major piece of legislation.

Now that House Republicans have had to go along with Democrats in the payroll tax debate, "the idea that this group of angry Tea Party Republicans, who feel betrayed, now will go along or that Boehner will be more capable of defying them is a little bit wrong-headed," Ornstein said.

Meanwhile, Democrats might be emboldened, believing "they've learned to play poker," he added.

Patrick Griffin, associate director Of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, said House Republicans "overplayed their hand. How they interpret that lesson will be very interesting."

Any edge conferred on Democrats might be short-lived, however. The 2012 election cycle is just set to kick off with the Iowa Republican presidential caucus on January 3 and a long road lies ahead until voters go to the polls in November.

The payroll tax funds the Social Security retirement pension system. If it had been allowed to rise, the increase would have hit the wallets of 160 million working Americans.

The $33 billion needed to pay for the two-month extension will be raised by increasing fees charged by housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing mortgages.

Analysts said the fee hike, which investors will likely pass along to borrowers, could raise financing costs for mortgages, but probably not enough to slow a housing market recovery.

Unemployment benefits set to expire soon were extended as well, while cuts in payments to doctors who treat patients in the government-backed Medicare health insurance program for the elderly were postponed, under the bill signed by Obama.

Also included in it was a Republican initiative aiming to force the administration into fast approval of an oil pipeline opposed by environmentalists and many Democrats. The provision gives Obama 60 days to either approve TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Gulf of Mexico facilities in Texas, or declare it not in the national interest.

Obama wants more time to evaluate the environmental impact of routing the pipeline through sensitive areas of Nebraska. The White House has said that if pushed for a decision within 60 days, the administration would be forced to reject the project.

Not extending the payroll tax cut, analysts warned, could have jeopardized the recovery, even risking another recession.

The modest two-month fix drew fire from some businesses that said it will complicate payroll processing and tax planning.

The payroll situation "could get more confusing," said Robert Gard, an accountant with Gard and LaFreniere LLC in Alpharetta, Georgia. If the tax is not extended at the end of February, businesses will need to reprogram software, he said.

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Obama Family Photo 2011: All Smiles!

Barack Obama with family

A brand new family portrait was released on the White House's Flickr feed today (yes, the White House has a Flickr -- how awesome is that?) It seems the president carved out some time to sit, relax and embrace the lovely Obama ladies for the family's second official portrait.

Like the first one, shot by Anne Leibovitz in 2009, Malia and Michelle sat together on one side and Sasha and Barack together on the other. Unlike 2009, however, this picture is all about bright color: Malia in blue, Sasha in purple and Barack in navy and pink (and this time, the president looks a tad more formal in a jacket).

While we don't (yet) know where Michelle got her black cap-sleeve dress, we're loving Malia's navy and black frock from Anthropologie (we know it must fit the tall teen perfectly, considering we tried it on last weekend and it hung well below our knees).

The whole family looks lovely and happy, leaving us with only one little objection...

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U.S. wants drone back from Iran, Obama says

Barack Obama, US President

President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States has asked Iran to return a U.S. drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said in a news conference.

The president's comments come one day after it was reported that an Iranian official said the country would not return the drone.

"No nation welcomes other countries' spy drones in its territory, and no one sends back the spying equipment and its information back to the country of origin," said Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Armed Forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

"It makes no difference where this drone originated and which group or country sent it to invade our air space," Salami said. "This was an act of invasion and belligerence."

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Obama tells Asia U.S. "here to stay" as Pacific power

Barack Obama, U.S. President

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced on Thursday that the U.S. military would expand its role in the Asia-Pacific region, despite budget cuts, declaring America was "here to stay" as a Pacific power which would help shape the region's future.

China has voiced misgivings about Obama's announcement of fresh troop deployments to Australia and has longstanding fears that its growing power could be hobbled by U.S. influence. But Beijing has also stressed that conflict is in nobody's interest.

Obama addressed the Chinese unease, pledging to seek greater cooperation with Beijing.

The U.S. military, turning its focus away from Iraq and Afghanistan, would be more broadly distributed in Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, more flexible and help build regional capacity, Obama told the Australian parliament.

"As we end today's wars, I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority," Obama said in a major speech on Washington's vision for the Asia-Pacific region.

"As a result, reductions in U.S. defense spending will not -I repeat, will not - come at the expense of the Asia Pacific."

Obama was clear in acknowledging China's discomfort at what it sees as attempts by Washington to encircle it.

"We'll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation," he said.

Nervous about China's growing clout, U.S. allies such as Japan and South Korea have sought assurances from the United States that it would be a strong counterweight in the region.

A first step in extending the U.S. military reach into Southeast Asia will see U.S. marines, naval ships and aircraft deployed to northern Australia from 2012.

China has questioned the new U.S. deployment, raising doubts whether strengthening such alliances helped the region pull together at a time of economic gloom.

Obama said the United States would seek to work with China to ensure economic prosperity and security in the region, but would speak candidly about issues such as human rights in China and raise security issue like the South China Sea.

China claims the South China Sea, a vital shipping route rich in oil, minerals and fishery resources. But Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei hold rivals claims to at least parts of the sea, sparking maritime stand-offs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointedly visited the Philippines on Wednesday, saying that no claimant should resort to intimidation to push its cause.

Obama also referred in his address to reforms undertaken by Myanmar's new civilian leaders, including the release of political prisoners. But he said they had to do more on human rights in order to secure better relations with Washington.

Rory Medcalf, security analyst at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, said Obama's speech marked a hardening of policy toward China, though he noted that the president was still reaching out to Beijing.

"I think we are seeing a firm stance from Obama. He spent the first year of his presidency trying very hard to engage with China, perhaps even to accommodate China," said Medcalf.

"I think he feels that he was rebuffed and that he was in effect taken advantage by China. So, there is a fundamental reorienting of American policy on display here."

U.S. SEEKS MORE FLEXIBLE FORCES IN ASIA

The winding down of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has opened the door to greater U.S. attention to simmering tension over the South China Sea, a shipping lane for more than $5 trillion in annual trade that the United States wants to keep open.

Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday agreed to have 2,500 U.S. Marines operate out of a de facto base in the northern port of Darwin by 2016.

The United States has military bases and large forces in Japan and South Korea, but its presence in Southeast Asia was dramatically reduced in the early 1990s with the closure of bases at Clark Field and Subic Bay in the Philippines.

Deploying U.S. Marines, ships and aircraft in Darwin, only 820 km (500 miles) from Indonesia, will allow the United States to quickly reach into Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to ensure secure major trade sea-lanes.

Obama cited increased U.S. naval ship visits and training in the Philippines and Singapore, working with Indonesia to fight piracy, partnering Thailand for disaster relief, and significantly, acknowledged India's role in region security.

Washington welcomed "India as it 'looks east' and plays a larger role as an Asian power.

"We'll have new opportunities to train with other allies and partners, from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean," he said.

Medcalf said: "It will be a landmark speech of Obama's presidency. It states unequivocally that the U.S. is squarely focusing its strategic attention on Asia. Its defining that Asia as including the Indian Ocean and India."

In a note to his domestic audience, Obama said the increased focus on Asia-Pacific was essential for America's economic future.

"As the world's fastest-growing region-and home to more than half the global economy-the Asia Pacific is critical to achieving my highest priority: creating jobs and opportunity for the American people," he said.

Obama will fly to Bali late on Thursday, where he will seek to underscore a focus on Asia by becoming the first U.S. president to participate in the security East Asia Summit.

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Obama administration launches $1 billion healthcare drive

Barack Obama

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday said $1 billion of federal funds allocated in last year's health reform law will go toward innovation programs designed to boost jobs and improve patient care.

The announcement is the administration's latest attempt to show that it is working outside of a deeply divided Congress to create jobs.

The administration will award grants in March to people who come up with the best ideas to lift care and save money for those enrolled in the federal healthcare programs Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

However, the administration did not say how many jobs the measure would create.

Don Berwick, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said a good example includes the Baylor Heart Hospital in Dallas which has worked to lower readmission rates for congestive heart failure.

"With the healthcare innovation challenge, we're going straight to the source," Berwick said during a news conference for the announcement.

"We want to find them, we want to help them, we want to spread what they know and what they've learned."

The $1 billion of awards will cut into the $10 billion that Congress set aside in the Affordable Care Act to fund a new CMS Innovation Center. The center is meant to promote better care and health at reduced costs by identifying, testing and spreading new models of care and payment.

To get a grant, projects must start within six months and the program will concentrate on those ideas that spur the most hiring and workforce training, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Awards will range from around $1 million to up to $30 million and be spread over three years. Applications are open to providers, payers, local government, community organizations and public-private partnerships.

Separately on Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide the legal fate of Obama's healthcare law, with an election-year ruling due by July.

JOB POLITICS

President Barack Obama has been aggressively promoting programs that hold potential to boost hiring, amid 9 percent U.S. unemployment which will hurt his re-election chances next year unless job creation improves.

Republican lawmakers have held up passage of most of a $447 billion jobs bill that Obama proposed in September, and which Democrats want funded by a tax on millionaires.

So far, only two modest proposals in the package have been approved by the Senate with Republican support.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have meanwhile passed a number of measures to boost jobs, but these have yet to be taken up by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Asked how many jobs the grants would create, Dr. Rick Gilfillan, acting director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, said: "This is not about a specific number. This is about recognizing that there are going to be more people involved in healthcare" as the population ages.

"The question is what are they going to be doing," he said, adding that the program would help identify high-value jobs in healthcare and help train people for them.

Some Republicans have questioned the innovation center's approach.

"We are concerned that at a time of significant uncertainty for the fiscal health of the U.S. government, funds are being expended by the Innovation Center with little to no actual value provided," three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee wrote to Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week.

Senators Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the committee, Mike Enzi and Tom Coburn said the innovation center received $10 billion in federal funding but has not yet produced recommendations or implemented any reforms.

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Obama officially open the summit of the Asia-Pacific to Hawaii

Barack Obama

AFP - U.S. President Barack Obama officially opened Sunday the summit of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) in Hawaii, dominated by a proposed free trade area comprising half of the 21 member countries. "We now have the opportunity to move toward our ultimate goal: a regional economy without hindrance," said Obama, who announced Saturday an agreement on the outline of a proposed free trade agreement between 10 countries Asia-Pacific.

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Sarkozy praised Obama covers a prime time

sarkozy-obama

AFP - U.S. President Barack Obama Friday highly praised his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy and exalted "the long-standing friendship" between Washington and Paris, in an interview published crossover novel to prime time, newspapers the nightly TV TF1 and France 2. The two presidents were installed for the occasion in the municipality of Cannes, a city which hosted Thursday and Friday as a festival hall the G20 meeting, the annual forum of the twenty largest economies, this year phagocytosed by the debt crisis in the euro area including Greece. MM. Sarkozy and Obama attended the G20.

"Given the fact that we worked together, Nicolas and I have excellent relations, we have always had. This follows from the fact that we share responsibilities, we are fighting the same in a very difficult time," Obama said. He said: "Nicolas has always been an open partner, who works a lot with a lot of energy. Whether on economic issues, issues related to safety, it was an absolutely essential partner". The U.S. president also assured that "we could not have succeeded in Libya without the leadership of Nicolas and NATO, we would not be in a position so strong in Afghanistan without the leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy as well as other partners in our coalition. "

"Nicolas Sarkozy" is someone who has lots of energy, and someone who does not like losing, so it will give that power to any campaign possible, "he thought Obama about his counterpart which, in all probability should be a candidate to succeed himself in 2012. He did not, however, mentioned that he was himself a candidate for re-election, to one year in the U.S. presidential election of 2012 . The relationship between France and the United States goes "beyond the relationship between the two leaders" and "Americans have a huge respect for the longstanding friendship between our two countries," Obama said .

President Sarkozy is also full of praise to his U.S. counterpart, "a man can be convinced" and "a brave man." "The friendship between France and the United States is crucial but friendship is not only the good times," said Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy has been particularly welcomed the fact that Obama is, he says, "the first president of the United States to take a step towards a taxation of financial players. I am grateful," he said.

Greece focuses the concerns of the G20

hu-jintao-nicolas-sarkozy-et-barack-obama

The Greek crisis and the possibility of an output of Athens in the euro area have dominated discussions at the first day of the summit of the G20 countries in Cannes. The day ended with a press conference by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He felt that the message Wednesday night by Germany and France to Greece on his proposed referendum had allowed a "consciousness" which, "if it is confirmed, would be welcomed by everyone." Parallel to statements by French President Angela Merkel has warned it expected Greece's actions rather than ad: "For us, it is actions that count." For her, the stability of the euro is indeed a higher priority as ensuring the maintenance of Greece in the euro area.

During the day, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou suggested that his plan to submit to referendum the bailout of the euro zone could be abandoned. After negotiations within the government, Mr. Papandreou would eventually agreed to démisionner, under pressure from his Finance Minister, subject to obtaining the confidence of Parliament on Friday. >> Read our lights: Greece Can get out of the euro area? U.S. President Barack Obama devoted part of his discussions with his counterparts in French and German, as a prelude to the opening of the summit, the crisis in the continent. "The most important aspect of our work over the next two days is to solve the financial crisis here in Europe," he said.

At its press conference, Nicolas Sarkozy also reiterated his confidence in the strength of the Italian economy, threatened with contagion. He said he "noted with interest" the new anti-crisis measures that the country has made on the sidelines of the G20, adding: "I would say my confidence in the Italian economy, which is one of the strongest economies in the world. C is the third largest economy in Europe, perhaps the seventh or eighth largest economy in the world. Italy is a truly remarkable tradition of entrepreneurs. " The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came to the G20 without being able to validate the anti-crisis measures by the government, tried to reassure his country's ability to repay its debt.

According to a draft action plan for growth discussed at Cannes, Italy is committed to approaching a balanced budget in 2013 and rapidly reduce its debt ratio to GDP from 2012. At about 120%, the ratio of debt to GDP in Italy is the largest of the major European countries. "There are now discussions [G20] to erect a firewall around countries such as Italy and Spain", for his part, said an Indian official. >> Read our lights: debt crisis: how Italy got there? * Emerging markets and the question of changes in a draft final communique obtained by Reuters, indicates that the G20 is working on the establishment of an international monetary system (IMS), which would better reflect the weight of emerging economies.

The group also agreed on the need to adjust the basket of special drawing rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to better reflect the changing roles of currencies. This adjustment could be a step towards better integration of currencies, as the Chinese yuan. However, the draft statement says nothing greater flexibility of exchange rates requested by the United States but opposed by China.

The United States, and to a lesser extent Brazil, pushed for the adoption of a stronger vocabulary, equivalent to an implicit commitment of China to move faster to a flexibility of its currency, the yuan. Like last year in Seoul, China seems determined to resist pressure and to defend the management at their own pace in the exchange rate of the yuan. With the uncertainties that collect around the euro area and the desire of Europeans see China contribute to their emergency fund, the risk is that the issue of currency does not move. According to sources from emerging countries, the G20 should be satisfied with the words of the communiqué of the G20 Finance held last month in Paris.

At this summit, the G20 finance ministers had simply agreed to continue "their efforts to move towards systems of exchange rates determined more by the markets and achieve greater flexibility in exchange rates to reflect economic fundamentals ".

The G20 will accept in its final communiqué, a possible increase of IMF resources by the willing. "States that so request, to the fall of 2012, bilateral increase their participation in IMF resources," said a source close to the negotiations. The fund's resources have been increased by an agreement approved a year ago, through a permanent doubling of contributions of member states, the "quota". This Agreement shall enter into force as nominally one year, but we need a sufficient number of national parliaments ratify it. Meanwhile, member states have provided temporary resources to the IMF through the "New Arrangements to Borrow." It is intended to remove this temporary resources when the increase of their contribution will be permanently effective.

In addition, the final communiqué should mention a new SDR allocation, a kind of international reserve asset of the IMF. An SDR allocation is a distribution of the assets created for the occasion, the Member States of the IMF, which fuels their foreign exchange reserves. British Finance Minister, George Osborne, confirmed that the G20 was discussing an increase in IMF resources. "The international community agrees that tackling the global economic situation, and there is a debate that has begun but not completed, on how to increase IMF resources," he said. Moreover, the IMF is going to get the creation of new precautionary credit lines and cash. These are loans to help countries, particularly emerging to deal with shocks in a hurry without being subject to formal programs of the IMF, with the strict conditions they imply.

In addition, the final communiqué should mention a new SDR allocation, a kind of international reserve asset of the IMF. An SDR allocation is a distribution of the assets created for the occasion, the Member States of the IMF, which fuels their foreign exchange reserves. British Finance Minister, George Osborne, confirmed q * The tax on financial activities back in discussions G20 leaders should discuss the creation of a tax on financial activities. A subject on which the Europeans encountered the reluctance, if not the opposition of many of their partners in the G20. On this point, Nicolas Sarkozy praised the "understanding" of Barack Obama on this issue and reported a "joint analysis" on the need for a "contribution to the world of finance" to solving the financial crisis and international economic.

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