Europe has capacity, resources to deal with current crisis: US

European countries have the necessary resources and capabilities to deal with the current economic crisis that has engulfed them, the White House said.

"We continue to believe that this is a European issue, that Europe has the resources and capacity to deal with it and that they need to act decisively and conclusively to resolve this problem," Jay Carney, White House press secretary said.

The position of the Obama Administration is that it's critical for Europe to move with force and decisiveness now, particularly with new governments coming into place in Italy, Greece and Spain, he noted.

"We obviously have a great deal of expertise and experience in these matters, and we have been in regular consultation with our counterparts from various European governments, consulting with them, offering the advice and expertise that we have to assist them, but we continue to believe that Europe has the capacity to deal with this and that they will conclusively," Carney told reporters.

President Barack Obama, he said, has been and would continue to be in regular contact with top European leaders, including the German Chancellor and the French President.

The global economic situation and in particular the situation in Europe was one of the topics of conversation at the US-EU summit hosted by Obama at the White House on Monday.

"The President

has been very clear, both publicly and in his conversations with European leaders, that they need to demonstrate the will to deal with this very challenging problem," he said.

"We recognise that this is difficult. We experienced similar difficulties in tackling the challenges that we faced in this country as we were in free fall, economically, in the beginning of 2009, and shedding jobs at a terrible pace and where the prospect of a global economic collapse was out there," Carney said.

"The president fully understands the challenges here that -- both political and substantive, but he believes it's -- this is a moment that requires that kind of decisive action.

And yes, that requires political will as well as the financial resources necessary," he said in response to another question.

Carney said that Obama was concerned that the Well, the President is concerned, as he has expressed, about the fact that the global economy and the events in Europe have an impact on US economy.

"It's created a headwind for much of the year and continues to create that headwind. That's why we believe it's in the US' interest, but most obviously in Europe's interest, to act decisively to deal with this profound challenge," he said.

"It does remind all of us that we need to take decisive action on the things that we can control. One of those things we can do is take action on measures that can grow the economy and create jobs," he said.

Image: Barack Obama