Obama, Rudd stress economic recovery

WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said he and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd largely focused on the economic crisis during a meeting in Washington Tuesday.

Obama said in the run-up to the G20 meeting in London April 2 "there's a great meeting of the minds between Prime Minister Rudd and myself in terms of ... job development and economic growth, the importance of a financial regulatory mechanism that prevents the kind of systemic risks that have done so much damage over the last several months, and, finally, making sure that as an international community we are looking after the severe threat that poor countries, emerging markets are under as a consequence of this financial crisis, and recognizing that our own growth, our own success in rebounding from this crisis is going to be tied up with what happens around the world."

The president said "subprime lending was the initial trigger (of the crisis), but there's a larger problem, and that is huge unregulated capital flows, a reliance on bubbles as a driver of economic growth."

Obama said it was vital to develop a system that kept capital from fleeing to unregulated areas of the world.

Rudd said it was important to build an economic framework that is "implemented globally, including by our friends in Europe," and praised a U.S. program to assist banks in the purchase of toxic assets and the U.S. stimulus plan.

The two leaders also discussed a common approach to the war in Afghanistan and global warming, Rudd said.