Obama calls Singh ahead of G 20 meet

United States President Barack Obama spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over phone and discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest, including the raging Eurozone crisis.The two leaders agreed to work to strengthen the global economy to cope with shocks from the Eurozone, the White House said in a statement on 14 June.

 "The leaders agreed on the importance of steps to strengthen the resilience of the global economy in response to persistent risks in the Eurozone and elsewhere and on focusing on measures to boost global growth," the statement said.

The President and the Prime Minster also agreed to work closely together towards a successful two-day G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, from June 18.

The summit is likely to be dominated by the crisis in Europe, which - combined with slowing growth in China and India - poses a threat to the world economy.

The ongoing European sovereign debt crisis has made it difficult or impossible for some countries like Greece and Spain in the euro area to re-finance their government debt without the assistance of third parties.

The call between the two leaders came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held the third US-India Strategic Dialogue with visiting External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.

On 11 June, the US exempted Indian and six other countries from tough new sanctions after they cut back on oil imports from Iran.