Greek Plans for Referendum Underscore Obama Limits

The prospect of a referendum surprises Greek European rescue plan illustrates the limited capacity of President Barack Obama to promote a quick solution to the crisis in the eurozone that could sweep across the Atlantic and threaten the fragile U.S. economy to recovery.

Unexpected call from Prime Minister George Papandreou for a public vote on the aid package, including austerity measures that are not popular, comes just two days before Obama joined with leaders of industrialized countries and major developing world as an economic summit in Cannes, France.

With the rotation of uncertainty and European rescue deal reached last week of the announcement raised fears Papandreou to a new level. European Consortium, which still must work to take their points, "may have been canceled by this decision," said Heather Conley, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It really is a time of crisis, the stakes are not higher," he said.

While Obama has said that the U.S. became a leader in the global economy, the White House on Tuesday weighed on Europe to act quickly in light of Papandreou would ask for a referendum.

Barack Obama

FILE - In this file photo from July 24, 2008, then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, as the waves arriving at the Victory Column in Berlin .. In 2009, President Barack Obama traveled to London for the first summit of the world's top 20 economies as a global rock star _ the U.S. president as the candidate who could command a large crowd in Denver and Berlin. This week comes to Cannes, France, during the G-20 summit with the status of the star decreases, more as a key player in the band for the driver. (AP Photo / Jae C. Hong / File) Collapse

"The announcement that he (Papandreou) reinforces the idea that Europe needs to develop and quickly implement the decisions they made last week," said White House spokesman, Jay Carney. "It's still the case that Europe has the ability to overcome this crisis and they need to implement the important decisions that they made last week to offer customized solutions for this."

Euro area is a matter of urgent topic in Cannes, placing the peak of the most remarkable German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Obama was among the main message the Group of 20 nations to focus on growth in the short term and long-term debt. Throughout his presidency, Obama has put pressure on surplus countries like China, Germany and Japan to do more to promote domestic spending and to support global economic growth.

"The only major international issue for the G-20 is a continuation of the crisis in Europe," said Rob Shapiro, a former deputy Minister of Commerce in the Clinton administration and now president of Sonecon, an economic consulting firm.

For Obama, it means walking a fine line between encouraging Europeans to act quickly and express confidence that they are. Obama upset some Europeans when he declared last month that the debt crisis is not resolved "fear of the world."

But Obama combines some tools for G-20 to take any action in the European debt crisis. Government officials played any role in the United States to help finance eurozone leaders to create a firewall to prevent the spread of crisis from Greece. However, he mentioned that the International Monetary Fund, with U.S. help could be summoned to help.

A key issue in the meeting Thursday and Friday are the methods provided in China or Japan, you dip into their cash reserves and contribute to the European rescue fund. For the U.S. proposal is essentially out of the question.