Obama talks consensus-building

London: Where President George W. Bush was known for his "cowboy diplomacy", US President Barack Obama wants to be known as a listener and a builder of bridges.

Taking his first turn on the world stage since taking office in January, Obama arrived in London two days ago for crisis talks on the global economy where he hoped to persuade other countries to spend more to revive global growth.

Obama won no new promises of spending when the summit of the Group of 20 major economic powers wrapped up on Thursday, but put a positive spin on the outcome, calling it a "turning point" as he welcomed agreements on fin-ancial regulation and new cash for the International Monetary Fund.

As financial markets rose on relief that the G20 summit had not ended in argument, Obama played up his role as a consensus-builder - an image he emphasised during his political rise in the United States.

"Each country has its own quirks and own particular issues that a leader may decide is really, really important, something that is non-negotiable for them," Obama told a news conference.

"And what we tried to do as much as possible was to accommodate those issues in a way that did not hamper the effectiveness of the overall document," he told the jam-packed room of both foreign and American journalists.

Describing his approach to world affairs, Obama said America was a "critical actor and leader on the world stage", but that it exercises its clout best when it listens to other countries' concerns.

Obama declined to make explicit comparisons between himself and President Bush, but the comments were intended to mark a contrast from what critics of Obama's predecessor said was a tendency toward a "go-it-alone" approach.

Obama's style also contrasted with some other G20 leaders, such as the outspoken French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

While Obama was emphasising the need for unity in the run-up to the summit, Sarkozy declared he would not associate himself with "false compromises" and raised the spectre of a walkout if a split over regulation could not be resolved.

At the news conference, Obama's global popularity was on display as he alternated between calling on American and foreign journalists. The foreign journalists shouted and waved to be called upon.

When Obama picked out a woman journalist from India she gushed "Thank you for choosing me", as if she had been tapped from the audience by a game-show host.

When he sneezed and said he was fighting a cold, there was a chorus of "God bless you" from the assembled reporters.

But neither Obama's popularity nor his image as the "anti-Bush" quelled questions about whether America's clout in the world was on the decline in the wake of a financial crisis that many abroad blame on lax regulation of US markets.

Even as Obama insisted he did not "buy into the notion that America can't lead in the world", he acknowledged that a great deal had changed since the last major reshaping of the world's financial architecture took place at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, as the Second World War came to a close.

Obama said he recognised there was no return to the days of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill "sitting in a room with a brandy" and deciding the world's fate.

"That's not the world we live in and it shouldn't be the world that live in," he said. But he added: "That's not a loss for America. It's an appreciation that Europe is now rebuilt and a powerhouse, Japan is now rebuilt and a powerhouse, China, India - these are all countries on the move."